


5 Times an Avenger (or two) Looked Out For Peter

by Fangirl_Disaster



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, C'mon I need more clickbait options!, Everyone Loves Peter Parker, Field Trip, Flash Thompson is a jerk, Fluff, I spent way too long trying to think of tags, Kidnapping, Minor IronDad and SpiderSon, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Panic Attacks, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Stabbing, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2019-10-24 11:24:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17703428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirl_Disaster/pseuds/Fangirl_Disaster
Summary: +1 time they all did.Just as the title says. The Avengers looking after Peter Parker because he is their spider-baby.





	1. Sam Wilson

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work for this fandom so I hope you enjoy it. School has started again unfortunately though, so my updating might be dodgy. I'm sorry about that, but you know, school's a demon in disguise.
> 
> As I said in the description, there is a panic attack in this chapter, so if that's a trigger for you please be careful, or stop reading, I don't want anyone to hurt themselves from my work. Also, I have never had a panic attack myself, so if it's inaccurate please tell me so I can try to fix it. I don't mean to offend anyone and I have tried to research it as much as possible.
> 
> I hope you enjoy my fic!

Peter loved lab days. Every Tuesday he would head over to Stark Industries, which thankfully, Mr. Stark had bought again after the whole homecoming incident. And Peter would head over there for the weekends so that May didn’t have to leave him alone. At least that was the excuse. Peter was pretty sure it was just an excuse so he couldn’t go Spiderman-ing all weekend with no one to take care of him.

Even though he could totally look after himself. But Peter went with it, because baby-sitting or not, he got to live in the _Avengers Tower._ Sure, half the avengers were still war criminals, but the thought is there.

 

“Dude what is your life even?”

Peter grinned. Ned was possibly even more excited about him staying there than he was himself. It was pretty close though.

“Yeah, Happy is picking me up after school, and taking me to the Tower. He might let us stop for ice-cream if he’s in a good mood.”

“Dude… I would kill to be you. Honestly, I would!”

“Sure, Ned.”

“I would man. Anyway, do you want to come over to my place on Monday? We can build that new AT-AP Walker that I bought!”

“Yeah, I would love to. But I’ll have to leave at about 7, because you know, I have my _other job._ ” Peter lowered his voice for the last part, even though no one would be bothering to listen to their conversation, and even if they were, it wasn’t like they could know that his other job was stopping muggers and robberies in his free time.

Ned’s face fell for a moment, but he hid his reaction well. “Yeah okay.”

Peter held in a sigh. As cool as it was being a friendly, neighborhood Spiderman, he missed being a normal kid. He missed not having to worry about stab wounds, and people dying and nightmares where he was stuck under that building again, but where this time, he couldn’t get the rubble off of him and no one came to save him. He missed the time where his biggest fear was falling his Calc exams.

 

The bell rang for the end of school, and he sprinted out the door, making his way through the hordes of students, desperately trying to escape school to begin their weekends. Peter’s priority was making sure the least number of students and teachers possible saw him climbing into the back of a sleek, black, limo with heavily tinted windows. He wasn’t too keen on answering those questions right now, or ever really. But he knew if worse came to worse, Mr. Stark had better lawyers than anyone else could even dream of having.

 

“Hey Happy!”

There was a low grunt in response. Although Peter would never admit it, he had a feeling that Happy had started to grow fond of him, or at least he didn’t completely hate his guts. Peter even reckoned he could see the edges of a smile pulling at Happy’s lips.

“Yeah, so today Ned and I started on our research project for Science, and it’s all…” he was jumping in his seat, thrilled to be able to spend the weekend at the tower. As usual, he told Happy about everything that had happened throughout his day, excluding the details about Flash. He didn’t want Mr. Stark to get news about what was happening there, because he knew he would over-react. And it wasn’t too bad, nothing Peter couldn’t handle. Just name-calling, a couple of jabs about not having parents, an occasional shove when he walked past. And anyway, it was far better that Flash picked on him, rather than someone else who couldn’t handle it, and got hurt because of it. Peter was Spiderman! A bully didn’t bother him.

The only thing that really upset him was the fact that no one believed him about his Stark Internship, not even the teachers. The only people who did believe him were Ned and MJ, who Peter thinks might not hate him as much as everyone else.

 

As they pulled up to the Avengers Tower, Peter felt his Spidey-sense (or as he liked to call it; constant anxiety) go off. But unfortunately, Peter was used to it going off all the time for every little thing. It even went off for a puddle, which of course startled him, causing himself to fall in said puddle. So yeah, when Peter felt it tingling in the back of his head, he didn’t think about it. Not even as he went up the elevator to Mr. Stark’s personal floor, leaving Happy to continue on with his other tasks.

 

“Hey FRIDAY, is Mr. Stark in his lab right now?”

“Boss is currently in the main kitchen. Would you like me to take you there, Mr. Parker?”

Peter frowned slightly, why would Mr. Stark be in the kitchen? Unless Rhodey had come home earlier. “Sure, FRIDAY take me up. And I’ve asked you before, please just call me Peter. Mr. Parker is too formal for me.”

“Sure Peter. Taking you up to main kitchen now.”

“Thanks FRIDAY!” He grinned. Although she was just an AI, Peter liked FRIDAY a lot. She definitely had loads of personality. All of Mr. Stark’s robots did.

 

The door of the elevator dinged open, and he ran through.

“Hey Mr. Stark, I’ve got my History essay due tomorrow and…” he cut off abruptly because, standing right in front of him were the AVENGERS! The honest to God Avengers!

Well, he already knew Mr. Stark, Vision he had met on occasion and Rhodey already insisted he called him Uncle Rhodey or Uncle Rhodes. But still! There was the Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America, Scarlett Witch, the Winter Soldier, Falcon and the that ant guy who had turned giant during the airport battle. Oh… the airport battle. He had sort of forgotten about that. These guys had hurt Mr. Stark. But they were so cool. And they were heroes! It was one of his secrets he’d hidden from Mr. Stark, but he knew almost everything about them all, even the names of their third-grade teachers. Except for Ms. Romanov, he knew nothing of her. He didn’t think anyone knew anything about her, at least nothing concrete. Natasha might not even be her real name.

 

“Oh my God.” _Wow Peter. You are faced with Earth’s mightiest heroes and the best you can come up with is oh my God. No wonder MJ makes fun of you for being shy. Come on, Peter, try again._

“You’re the avengers. Oh my god, oh my god, OH MY GOD!!!. You’re the avengers. You’re the AVENGERS. Oh my god, oh my god Ned is going to kill me! YOU’RE THE AVENGERS!!!” he was almost certain China had heard him yelling. He flushed a deep red. Great, he’d humiliated himself in front of the greatest heroes of the world, and his childhood’s, and still to today’s heroes. Ned’s never going to forgive him for this.

 

“Tony, who is this?” Mr, Rogers frowned.

Mr. Stark let out a long-suffering sigh, and his head fell into his hands.

“Peter, like you said, these are the avengers, minus Point Break and Brucie obviously. Everyone, this is Peter, my personal intern. He stays here overnight on the weekends, and has full access, so if you see him somewhere, he is allowed to be there, so don’t kill him. Please.”

 

Peter felt his eyes widen to saucers. He thought Mr. Stark was joking about them not killing him, but he wasn’t certain. They certainly could kill him if they wanted to. Or could they? Ms. Romanov definitely could, and she would ensure that no one could find the body. Or for that matter notice he was even gone. She was a scary lady, but it only made Peter admire her more. And she was MJ’s favourite Avenger, so he had to like her, or deal with an irritated MJ and no one deserved to have to survive that.

 

He blinked a few times. He’d zoned out again. He really needed to work on paying better attention, especially with the Avengers around. Who knew what he could find out if he hung out with the actual AVENGERS! Well they probably wouldn’t let him hang out with them, cause he was a 15-year-old kid, not exactly worthy of that honour and… _Pay attention Peter!_

 

“… for the job?” Mr. Barnes was speaking.

“Ummm…… What?”

Mr. Hawkeye snorted and Peter felt heat rush to his cheeks. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Mr. Rogers and Ms. Romanov share a meaningful glance. Great, now they thought he was stupid. Of course, they did. He was a stupid little kid and they were all heroes! Sure, he was Spiderman, but that was nothing compared to them. He was stuck on the ground while they were fighting aliens and all that.

And yeah, he had turned down Mr. Stark’s offer but even if he had taken it up, he would be nothing. And he barely helped anyone. All he seemed to do was get people killed and hurt everyone he cared about. Uncle Ben, Liz and her family, his parents had died when he was a kid, he seemed to hurt everyone. Faintly, he could hear his breathing stuttering and his heart rate accelerating. He was drowning and stuck in his thoughts. A failure. Nothing, no one.

“Peter, Peter breathe. You need to breathe. Come on. Come on.”

Peter couldn’t, he was suffocating, drowning, and someone was touching him, and it felt like hands were everywhere. He tried to shake them off, but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak and they were holding him and shaking him, and he was dying.

 

“Peter, please. Get out. Everyone get out now!” the voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it. “Peter, come on. Breathe, in and out. You can do it.”

He tried, he really did. For some reason he trusted the voice, but the feeling of being touched was making it hard to think, and he felt faint and was slowly disconnecting from his body.

“Let him go, he might not want to be touched.”

The hands disappeared and he sucked in a deep breath. His breathing was still funny, but Peter felt himself come back to reality, if ever so slightly.

“That’s it. Well done Peter, you’re doing great. Try to breathe with me. In and out. Big breaths. Try not to inhale too much too fast.”

 

Peter’s breathing regulated and he felt his body relax. His vision began to clear, and he saw two figures crouched in front of him. Mr. Stark and the Falcon, Sam Wilson.

“Mr. Stark?” he whispered.

Mr. Stark looked panicked but began to calm when he heard Peter’s voice.

“Hey kiddo. You gave us a nasty fright. Lucky we had Wilson here. Do you not like being touched?”

Peter still felt slightly dazed. “No, I don’t mind being touched. But not like that. It felt like suffocating, they were everywhere, drowning me.”

Mr. Stark looked pained. “I’m sorry kid.”

“T’sn’t your fault. You didn’t know Mr. Stark.”

 

Mr. Wilson looked over him carefully. “You’ll probably feel a bit out of it now kid. Can we touch you now Peter?”

“Yeah, Mr. Wilson. I’m good now.”

“Ok Peter. And please, Sam’s fine.”

“Sure Mr. Sam.”

Mr. Stark laughed slightly as Sam reached out to help him to his feet. Had he fallen over?

“C’mon kiddo.” Peter slung an arm over each of their shoulders. He felt slightly embarrassed to have done that in front of everyone, but right now he was too tired to care fully.

“Thanks Mr. Stark. Thank-you Mr. Wilson.”

“Anytime Peter. It’s nice to meet you.”

Peter grinned sleepily.

“Nice to meet you too, Sam.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT 15/05/19  
> I just went over all of the chapters and fixed up the spacing, because I got a comment saying it was difficult to read. Hope this is better now!


	2. Natasha Romanov

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, two chapters in two days. That's not going to last. Thanks so much for your Kudos and comments on the last chapter, it made me so excited and happy to see others actually enjoying the stuff I post. Normally, I find my writing really bad so I hope you enjoy this next chapter, all about the two Spiders. I really like this one. Again it's not super long, so sorry about that. Enjoy the fic!
> 
> WARNING stab wounds in this one. It's not very violent, but just in case, it's at the end.

Peter didn’t see much of the Avengers for that weekend after the incident. He was pretty sure that was of Mr. Stark’s doing. And although he was slightly annoyed about it, he was relieved he didn’t have to face the embarrassment again. At least until he saw them again.

 

Peter was in the kitchen, sitting on the island, scrunched over his homework. It was on the Dark Ages and was one of every kid’s worse nightmares. A timeline. Peter swore the things were made to suck, if you messed up the calculations or the scale, you had to start again. If you put one date in the wrong spot, you had to start again. If you messed up literally anything, you had to start again. And just to top all that, it had to be done on A4 paper, so everything was squished up in this tiny space, with huge gaps of nothing.

God, if he ever found out who invented timelines, and who thought it would be a good idea to force students to make them, he would shove them off a cliff and let the sea claim their body. Well, maybe. Probably not really, but it was a nice thought to help him through the activity.

 

“Hey kid.”

Peter jolted up, nearly falling out of his seat.

“Hi Ms. Romanov, Black Widow, Ma’am.”

The assassin grinned. “You have a bit of a thing for names.”

“Sorry Ma’am.”

“Chill. It’s fine. Just don’t call me Ma’am. Ms. Romanov or Natasha is fine.”

“Ok Ms. Romanov.”

Natasha looked down to his pile of books. “What are you doing?”

“Homework.” He sighed and let his head bang back to the table.

She snickered and grabbed a single apple from the fridge. “Good luck kid.” She strolled out of the room, leaving Peter to his misery.

 

 

 

The weekend was over before he knew it, and he was back at school again. Surrounded by other pubescent teenagers. And jeez the smell was bad. Who knew agony had a scent?

“Peter, PETER!” he shook his head.

“Hey Ned!”

Ned smiled at his friend. Peter was pretty sure it was because he looked like the dead walking. He hadn’t even had time to go out as Spiderman he’d been too fixated on finishing his studying. And May had threatened that if his grades began to drop, he would have to quit his outside work, until they got up again.

“We still on for tonight? Till seven yeah?”

“Yep, definitely. I can’t wait to check out the new set you got. Anyway, Mr. Stark is out for the night. He’s going out with Pepper. I don’t know about the rest of the avengers though.”

“Wait what!”

“Oh man, I completely forgot to tell you.”

Ned looked like he was about to explode. “The AVENGERS are living with you and you FORGOT to tell me!”

Peter scratched the back of his head. “Well, not exactly. They aren’t living with me per se. More Mr. Stark. Who I live with on the weekends. Soooo….”

Ned glared at him, but it was without any heat. “Peter if you don’t tell me everything about what happened I will kill you and hide the body.”

Peter did.

 

 

 

School went past in a flash, and it was nearly the end of the day already when Flash stopped him in the halls.

“Hey Penis, PENIS!”

Peter sighed, Flash was anything but creative. He only used the same stupid nickname. And it wasn’t even that funny.

“What do you want Flash?”

“I looked it up Penis. Stark Industries doesn’t take interns.”  
Peter held in a groan. So it was going to be one of these again.

“Look, Flash. I’ve told you before, my arrangement is special. I was making stuff out of old, broken Stark phones and Mr. Stark found out. He decided to hire me, but because I’m still in school he decided to make me an intern. What is it about that that you don’t get?”

Flash snarled, “Why would Tony Stark hire you, Parker?”

“I literally just told you Flash.”

“You’re lying. Even if he did hire you, it would just be because you were an orphan and he felt sorry for you.”

“There are heaps of orphans in America, Flash. And most of them are far worse off than me.”

“Then what? Are you a whore for him? Is that what you do? Cause I know Tony Stark used to be a playboy. Are you his little boy toy?”

It was times like these where Peter had to use everything in his abilities to stop himself from throttling Flash. It would be so easy, he would barely have to squeeze.

“Peter, c’mon. Let’s go.” Ned grabbed his arm and pulled him away. Peter’s body was shaking, and he wanted to scream.

“Peter, why don’t you get someone to help? Or tell Mr. Stark? You could get Flash to stop easily. Why don’t you?”

He let out a wobbly breath. “Because if I suddenly beat him up, my secret would be out of the bag, cause Peter Parker wasn’t able to fight Flash beforehand, he can’t now. If I told a teacher, you know how good they are. If anything it will make it a hundred times worse. And then if Mr. Stark found out, he would kill Flash and ruin his family, and I don’t want that on my conscience. And anyway, it’s nothing I can’t handle, and I don’t want someone else to get bullied, someone who can’t handle it and then get hurt because of it.”

Ned sighed, “Peter you have to stop being such a hero. Sometimes you have to look after yourself too. Even Spiderman isn’t invincible. You can get hurt as well.”

“Look, Ned. Can we please just talk about something else?”

 

The topic wasn’t brought up again, though throughout the afternoon Ned would glance at him worriedly and stop whenever he caught Peter staring back.

 

At seven he left Ned’s place, and found an alley to change in. He didn’t want anything Spiderman related ever being tied to Ned and his family in any way, shape or form. If someone thought he knew Ned, then he could be used as a hostage, or as bait, or he could be hurt to get back at Spiderman. It was far better off having to change near some dumpster, than to risk his friend’s life.

 

When he was changed, he climbed up the nearest building and jumped off it, swinging. Every time there would be a moment of free fall, where he was falling down, being pulled by gravity before soaring back up again. It gave him a great adrenaline boost, and each time was just as exciting as the first.

 

 

“Hey, Karen, is there any crime around?”

“Hello, Peter. There appears to be a mugging in the alleyway on 68th Avenue. You seem tired. Are you alright?”

“Yeah Karen, I’m fine. Just didn’t sleep much last night. Too much study. But that’s what you get when you are a high school student. It’s like by the time a teacher starts a class, they have forgotten all the pain they went through in their own childhood, you know?”

“I do not Peter. I am an AI, I haven’t been to school.”

Peter blinked a few times. He sometimes forgot Karen wasn’t a real person. Even though she was his friend, she was an AI program, just like FRIDAY.

“Ok. So alleyway next to 68th Avenue, right?”

“Yes, Peter. But I would not advise going out tonight. You are running on low energy, and you have an increased risk of getting yourself hurt, and your reaction times will slow.”

“I’ll be fine Karen, I’ve run on less sleep before. Now, can you show me where go?”

“Very well, Peter.” He could hear the disapproval in her tone, but like he had said, he was fine. What was the worst that could happen?

 

Peter swung down into the alley. He landed as quietly as possible, so as to not alert the muggers to his presence. There seemed to be six of them, all surrounding a woman, who looked around May’s age. Ok then, not the best odds, but he could take it.

 

He crouched down and aimed his web shooters towards the mugger closest to him. The lady’s eyes caught on him and widened considerably. He put a finger to his lips, silently begging her not to make any indication that he was there. Thankfully, the cosmic force that was controlling his hot mess of a life, decided to take mercy on him, and she moved her eyes back to the mugger.

 

He waited until he moved slightly to the right, aimed again and fired his web shooters, which threw the guy back against the wall, trapping him there. The rest of them turned around and ran at him. Peter wished that just one time, someone would see him and go on their knees and give themselves up. But no, they just had to make Peter’s life as hard as possible didn’t they?

 

He fired again, two shots hitting the men, immobilising them. The third one went a little wide, just missing the mark by a hair’s breadth. He flipped up, narrowly avoiding their fists as they ran at him, attacking from all angles. He waved wildly at the lady, trying to signal for her to run as he restrained the next two men. She seemed to understand, and sprinted out the alleyway, clutching her bag tightly. Peter landed and grinned slightly to himself. Job well done. His head felt slightly fuzzy, so he didn’t notice his Spidey-sense tingling until too late.

 

“Peter!” Karen yelled as he turned, just in time to receive a knife straight into his chest. Oh god. He’d forgotten about the last mugger. The man’s eyes seemed to widen as he realised what he had done. He turned and sprinted out the same way the lady had left, leaving Peter standing in the alleyway. Or at least he was standing, until his legs collapsed. He reached for the blade, about to pull it out.

“Peter, no! The blade is the only thing stopping you from bleeding to death. You need to leave it in. I am getting help from the Tower as Mr. Stark has disabled his connection for the night. Do not close your eyes Peter, and do not pull the blade out.”

 

Peter’s breathing was shallow, and his vision was going hazy.

“Help is one minute away. Keep your eyes open, Peter.”

He sucked in another breath, and another.

Everything felt distant, disconnected. Like he wasn’t inside his body, merely a spectator, watching from the sidelines, unable to do anything. Vaguely, he heard the sound of a motorbike roaring to a stop, and the sound of feet coming up to him. He forced himself to open his eyes, just enough to see the familiar face of the one and only, Black Widow. He felt her hands reach down to pick up his body, and heard her voice talking to him. But he was gone, sliding away, letting the darkness claim him.

 

 

“He’s been out for a couple of hours. Found him in an alleyway, he must have been mugged coming back from his friend’s place. Luckily, the blade didn’t go too deep, or he would have had to have super healing to survive. Still a miracle he made it through at all.”

Peter was too tired to open his eyes for now. Everything felt heavy. He couldn’t move his arms, or his fingers at all. He reckoned his big toe was wiggling but that was about the extent of his mobility. All he could do was listen to the voices talking around him.

“Why would someone go after him though? He’s just a kid, and no offence but he doesn’t exactly look like the most pricy guy in town.”

“Bad luck probably. That’s it.”

The sounds of footsteps announced the arrival of someone else.

“FRIDAY managed to get through to Tony.”

“And?”

“He’s on his way. Seemed pretty panicked, and rightly so. I told him Peter was okay though. He’ll be about an hour.”

 

Mr. Stark was coming. Thank god. He didn’t want to have to deal with the Avengers learning about his secret identity on his own. But Ms. Romanov didn’t seem to have told them anything. That was odd. His finger twitched and the feeling started coming back into his body. The upside of super healing. By tomorrow he would be fine to go back to school again. Yay.

 

“Ok everyone, clear out. He doesn’t need all of us in here. I found him; I’ll wait till Tony gets here. Got it?”

There were mummers of consent and everyone seemed to leave the room. Peter waited.

“You can open your eyes kid. We’re alone in here.”

Slowly, Peter forced his eyes open, and instantly winced at the brightness of the room. Natasha seemed to notice.

“FRIDAY, dim the lights please.”

 

There was no response, but when Peter reopened his eyes, the room was far darker. Natasha was sitting on his bed, looking at him carefully.

 

“You okay?”

Peter groaned quietly. “Yeah.”

“You’re Spiderman.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, and I was doing this before Mr. Stark found me. He didn’t force me to do anything and it wasn’t his fault I’m like I am.”

“Slow down kid. I know, I know. Tony clearly cares about you, and he’s not the sort to experiment on people, especially children.”

“Does the team know?”

She grinned slightly. “Nah, I thought it would be our little secret for now. Us Spiders have to stick together.”

Peter grinned back, ignoring the throbbing in the back of his head. “Spiders stick together. Hah, like webs.”

“Not exactly what I was thinking of, but I get what you mean.”

“So you won’t tell anyone?” Peter asked worriedly.

“No. I won’t, not unless you tell me I can. How did it happen? How did you get the abilities?”

 

They sat there, talking all about his past, and on occasion she would share a story too, but mostly about her life in SHEILD, nothing before that. Peter didn’t mind. She could keep her secrets, so long as she kept his too.

And that’s how Mr. Stark found them, running in an hour later, panting heavily, to see the two of them curled up on his bed, eating the ice-cream Natasha had gotten for them, watching Star Wars on the TV on the wall, laughing at something Peter had just said. Tony smiled, took out his phone and snapped a quick photo, before going in to join them on the bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading again! If there were any mistakes please tell me in the comments so I can try to fix it. Also sorry if anyone seems OOC, I'm just writing the characters how I feel they are, and how they would react. I have not read any of the comics, so this is based purely off the movies. And I have never been properly bullied or stabbed (thank god) so if that's not what it's really like I apoligise. But I hope you enjoyed the new chapter! Please tell me what you think and if you have any preference on who I do next.
> 
> Quick message: I live in Australia, and I have been to America exactly zero times. So that means I use the Australian spelling most of the time, (sometimes I change between the English and American which just makes spelling tests a huge pain. If you do this too you know what I mean) I also try to make it as much like America as possible but since I've never been there it might not be actually what it's like. I've tried really hard to make sure I use inches and all that as well as Fahrenheit because Peter is from Queens and he would use those, but sometimes I slip up and go back into the metric system and use Celcius. If I do that, sorry, I don't mean to. I also may use Australian terms. I learnt the other day that most people don't say words like arvo, heaps, don't use mate that often either, and don't use esky either! Seriously, I was so surprised. To everyone else I probably didn't make much sense but those from Australia, you know what I mean. I spent half of today looking up all these words and phrases that are "native" to Australia. Wow, it was hilarious. You guys are really missing out on some awesome words. 
> 
> But I've been going on for too long so, bye! I probably won't update for a while, it depends on how busy school is, and whether or not I write in the car trip home tomorrow. Thanks again so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed my work.
> 
> EDIT: I've just gone over all of the chapters and tried to fix up some spelling and grammar mistakes. And there was quite a few sorry. Please let me know if there's more!


	3. Bucky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This started off as a light fluffy chapter about Peter getting sick or something but then my mind decided it was time to get Peter hurt even more, as if he hadn't been hurt enough. So sorry about that. I might try to do a sickfic later on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry about the big break between posting. School's been exhausting and I haven't been feeling like writing that much. But since so many people left kudos and read the previous chapters I thought I'd try to get another one out. Also just on that note, everyone who has left comments and kudos and just read this fic thank you so much! It sort of amazes me that people actually like my work. You know the whole, you are your own biggest critic. But it means heaps to me, and always makes my day and inspires me when people comment and all that. So thank you for all that!
> 
> Just a warning, in this chapter Peter gets kidnapped and tortured. It's not pretty. I'm just abut to update the tags, but it doesn't go into too much details. If you don't want to read that sort of thing, just ignore this chapter until I post again. I promise I'll try to write something a bit lighter next time, but no guarantees.
> 
> Enjoy the chapter!

Peter started to settle into life at the Tower with the Avengers. Ever since he got stabbed, they started to talk to him more.

Peter was pretty sure that this was thanks to Natasha’s constant hassling of Mr. Stark to let him live his life a little. Although he still had rules. He had to train with Ms. Romanov every day he stayed at the tower, so four days a week.

Not that he was complaining. Being able to train with the Black Widow was incredible. Ned was dying. He would always interrogate Peter for details afterwards. So yeah, Peter’s life was starting to look up a lot.

 

The Avengers were all on a mission, and he wasn’t able to come, for they, excluding Natasha and Mr. Stark, had never met Spiderman properly before. And there was a chance that they could figure out his identity because of it. Even though the chance was small, Mr. Stark didn’t want to risk it. Which meant he was to stay at home alone over the weekend. Or so he thought.

 

Peter sprinted out of the building after the bell rang. His train always left pretty soon after school ended, so unless he wanted to wait for ages, he’d better run. The car park was full of all kinds of cars, all extremely expensive. The only reason he was at Midtown at all was because of his scholarship. And even with it, the books and everything else still cost a whole lot of money. Peter could barely understand how everyone afforded it. It definitely wasn’t through effort. Heaps of the kids in his grade only had one parent working, and only at a single job, while Aunt May worked about five jobs all piled on top of each other, and they could barely scrap together the money for dinner some nights.

 

As he was running, his eyes caught on a familiar black car. Happy. What was he doing here? He stopped short and wandered back over to the car.

“Happy?”

“Get in kiddo.”

Peter frowned, his voice sounded a bit off, but did as he said. Maybe Happy was still recovering from that cold he’d had earlier.

 “Why are you here, Happy? I thought everyone was out on the mission?”

Happy grunted slightly.

“Happy?”

There was another grunt. The back of Peter’s head started tingling.

“The Tower is in that direction.”

No response.

“Happy, stop the car.”

The car sped up.

“Happy, stop right now.”

He was going faster, but not fast enough to be speeding. Peter’s head felt like it was about to explode; his Spidey-sense was off the rails.

“Happy!” Peter wasn’t proud of the way his voice shook.

“Please, stop.”

No one responded. Peter turned and pounded against the glass.

“HAPPY!”

He tried the handle. Locked. For the first time, Peter was beginning to regret having tinted windows, with bulletproof glass.

“Come on!” He pounded harder and harder. A slight crack began to appear. Peter was shaking violently. This was different to being out as Spiderman. Then he was safe, and he had his suit. Now he was just Peter Parker, and he was scared.

“Happy, please. Stop the car. Now!”

 

Peter knew this wasn’t Happy. Happy would have stopped the first time he’d asked. He would have cut the engines, turned around to Peter and checked if he was okay. He’d have made sure Peter was safe, reassured his that nothing was wrong, and explained to him why he was picking him up. He would have complained about having to drive around a toddler, but would grin at Peter, and offer to take him out for ice cream, because, ‘he had nothing better to do’. In that moment, Peter wanted nothing more for Happy to be there. But he wasn’t, and whoever was driving the car didn’t care about I he felt safe or not. In fact they probably were why he felt unsafe.

 

 

Hammering at the windows, Peter reached into his pocket for his phone. It was empty. He swallowed a scream that threatened to escape his lips. He must have left it at home, or in his locker. He had no way of contacting Mr. Stark, or anyone for help. He’d left his suit at home, since he hadn’t needed it to stay at the tower.

Breathe Peter. Come on. If you can lift a building off of you, you can break this glass. Come on.

 

 

Again and again, he brought his fist to the window. Never ceasing, he felt something in his hand pop, but he ignored it and kept on hitting. As if realising what he was trying to do, the car sped up, weaving its way through the traffic.

Cars honked at them and swerved out of the way. Soon, the road was shooting past in a blur, everything moving too hard for the eye to track.

Cracks spider webbed across the window, and then the divider shot up. Peter smashed his hand a final time against the window, and felt it shatter against his hand, the shards cutting into his skin. But he was too late, the attacker swerved violently, and his hand reached back and stabbed Peter with a needle of sorts. He felt himself slipping away, comforted by the lull of darkness, his final thought, _I was so close._

 

 

When Peter came to, he could feel a blinding bright light, shining on his face. It took all of his willpower not to flinch away. There was a chance that they didn’t know he was Spider-man, and right now, surprise was one of the only things he had going for him.

He craned his ears, trying to pick up on the conversation happening around him. He was sluggish, and his brain wasn’t working properly, making it hard for him to concentrate.

“… wait till they come back into range.”

“How long? We don’t know how long he’s gonna last for.”

“Dunno, it could take anything from a couple of hours to a week.”

“A week! We-” The man was cut off by a sharp beeping noise. Peter couldn’t control his flinch.

“How the hell is the kid awake already? I thought you gave him the high dosage?”

“I did!”

“Well clearly you didn’t. You idiot! Now the entire schedule is messed up.”

“We could drug him again.”

 

There was a pause, during which Peter forgot how to breathe. What was going on? He’d been kidnapped, that much was for sure. But what were they going to do to him?

 

“Actually, don’t bother. We need to have him looking good for our guests.”

The other voice chuckled; a low sound that sent shivers through Peter’s body.

“Of course boss. I’ll set everything up.”

Footsteps pounded away.

“Come on boy. Time to get up.”

Peter didn’t move.

“I said it’s time to wake up.”

He stayed as still as possible. Peter didn’t understand why, but his Spidey-sense was desperately warning him to keep his eyes closed.

“Open your eyes you stupid boy!”

Peter refused.

“OPEN YOUR EYES!” the man was screaming, the noise deafening. Against all of his instincts, Peter opened up his eyes.

 

 

He was lying on some sort of metal bench, tied down with steel bindings. The room looked like a doctors surgery, the sort of place you would be put in for an operation. The walls were a sterile white and the man standing above him was wearing a doctor’s mask and scrubs. What didn’t fit the bill, were the things lining the walls. There were chains and scalpels. And there were Tasers and all sorts of other nasty instruments. Peter gulped down a sob.

 

“There we go. That’s a good boy.”

The other man came rushing back in with a tray full of other sharp contraptions.

“Are you ready boss?”

“I believe we are.” He turned his gaze back to Peter. “Now kiddo, I need you to do exactly as I say, got it?”

Peter shuddered.

“Ok then. I’m going to need you to scream, as loud as you can. If you do that, we won’t have to go for too long. Can you do that for me?”

He sucked in a loud breath.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes. Remember, the louder you scream, the sooner this’ll be over.”

The man reached out a picked up a scalpel from the tray. Peter forced his eyes closed.

“Uh uh. Keep your eyes open. We want to see those doe brown eyes, son.”

Peter felt tears slipping down his face. He tried to stop them, but he couldn’t.

“There we go. You’re getting it already. I’m sure you’re gonna be great at this. Now open your eyes.”

He opened them again.

“Good boy. Now let me hear you scream.”

 

He dug the scalpel into his skin. Peter nearly bit his tongue off holding back his howl. The man frowned, and repeated the action, just a few inches away from the original wound. Peter clenched his jaw. It was his one tiny rebellion. Refusing to let go of that last piece of his free will. But he wasn’t sure how long he could last.

 

Again, and again the man jabbed the blade into Peter’s body. His arms, his legs, parts of his stomach. He clearly knew what he was doing for he avoided the areas that would cause Peter to bleed out. He raked the blade across his skin, but still Peter held out.

 

“I want you to scream boy. Why won’t you scream?”

Tears were pouring down his face, and Peter could taste blood in his mouth from where he was biting down on his tongue.

“I don’t want to hurt you this much. I want to stop but I can’t until you start screaming. Why do you put yourself through this?”

Peter wouldn’t let himself scream, he wouldn’t, he wouldn’t. He sucked in a huge breath and tried to force himself to calm. But he couldn’t, not while he was thrashing against his bonds, his whole body a wall of pain. He tried to tell himself to be brave, that he was Spider-Man. But he wasn’t. Not now. Right now he was nothing but Peter Parker. And he wasn’t enough. Peter let go of his tongue and screamed.

 

 

Not soon after, Peter blacked out from the pain. He came to now and then, only to pass out again moments later. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been gone for. Whether or not Mr. Stark was back from his mission. If Aunt May was worried about him. If anyone had even noticed if he was gone. The man was leering over him again. It was almost like a nightmare, except Peter couldn’t wake up.

 

The man and his assistant walked out, for a snack break or whatever other reason he didn’t know.

All he could concentrate on was the fact that the assistant had left his phone in the room. It was so close. Just out of reach of his hand. Peter struggled against his bonds, twisting and turning his hand. So close, so close.

He bent it again, pain flaring up his arm, but he ignored it, because in his hand he held the phone. And it didn’t have a passcode, thank god. He opened up calls; typed in the first number he could think of and clicked call. Too late he realised that it was a Face-Time, but there was nothing that he could do.

“Who is this and how did you get this number?”

Peter forced back his tears.

“Please help me.” He whispered.

“I’m sorry?” He tilted the screen up so they could see his face.

“Please…”

“Oh my god. Peter?”

“Quiet. They’ll hear you.”

“Peter where are you? What happened?” Her voice was significantly softer.

“I don’t know. Please, Nat. I’m scared.”

He could hear the sounds of a motorbike starting up again, but he closed his eyes. He was so tired.

“Peter, I’m tracking this phone okay? We’re still on the mission, but we can start back now. Bucky was already headed back. I’m going to call him, and he’ll get you. Hold on Peter. Stay with me.”

Footsteps were rapidly approaching. Peter had a spilt second to think. He disabled the call and shoved the phone away from his hand.

“Are you ready to be a good boy now Peter?”

He gulped.   
“Let me hear you scream.”

 

Peter repeated to himself, they are coming, they are coming, they are coming.

Peter heard the sound of wood breaking, and tried to force his eyes open, to no prevail. There was a noise, like someone getting hit in the head with something hard. Heavy footsteps ran up to him, hands reaching down and ripping off the locks on his restraints.

 

“Peter.”

He groaned in response.

“Okay Peter. It’s okay, I’ve got you.”

Strong hands gently curled themselves around his body, and he felt himself lifted up into the air. But he was so tired, he couldn’t hold on. For what felt like the hundredth time, he fell away into sleep.

 

 

Peter opened his eyes slowly. He was resting on a soft mattress, and the lights were dimmed.  There was a figure seated next to his bed, hands clasped, and head bowed. Peter tried to shuffle into a more comfortable position, but instantly stopped as pain rippled through his body.

The man looked up, and his eyes caught on Peter’s.

 

“Try not to move.”

He frowned, but it came out as more of a grimace.

“Mr. Barnes?”

He smiled softly.

“Just Bucky kiddo.”

 

Bucky pulled his chair closer to the bed.

 

“Can I touch you?”

Peter mumbled quietly in response.

Bucky gently ran his fingers through Peter’s hair, and he felt his whole body relax, sinking back into the bed.

 

“I’m so sorry Peter. I should have gotten there earlier. We shouldn’t have left you alone. I’m sorry.”

“S’not your fault Bucky.” Peter’s voice was soft, raw from screaming too much.

“I should have been there though.”

 

There was a soft pause.

“I will be there. Next time. I promise kid. If you ever get into trouble again, I’ll find you.”

Peter shifted his gaze to meet Bucky’s eyes.

“I know you will Bucky.”

 

He closed his eyes again, missing the small smile that crossed his features. With Bucky’s hand in his hair, and his voice whispering stories of his and Steve’s adventures as kids, Peter drifted off peacefully to sleep, and for the first time since he was captured, he felt safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed that chapter. I seem to have a thing for ending chapters with Peter falling asleep. 
> 
> As always constructive criticism and comments are welcome. If you have any preferences for who I should do next, or a basis of a plot, like Peter getting sick or that you want Wanda to be more of a character or if you want more Avengers bonding time or anything, make sure to mention it and I'll try to add it in.
> 
> Thanks again!


	4. Bruce Banner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just Bruce helping Peter out, pretty fluffly compared to the last one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I'm so so so sorry that I haven't written in so long. I've been super busy with school and just life in general. I haven't been feeling writing that much, but I really wanted to get another chapter out, cause I hate having to wait for an author to finish their fic. So yeah, really sorry about that. My friend wanted me to have a chapter with Banner in it, and then just as I was about to post it, I realised that Bruce wasn't in any of the other chapters. Sooooo....... I had to re-write the entire first half of the chapter. This wasn't my favourite chapter, but I hope you enjoy it! It's not super long sorry. Also I’ve got tumblr! If you want you can check me out at oopsthere goesthatlifeofmine I don’t post anything yet, but I reblog some stuff. So yeah, if you want, check me out.

Mr. Stark could become the world’s most protective dad. Not that Peter thought of him as a dad. He just, was really protective. Like a mentor, not a dad. Nothing like a dad. But he was being super protective of Peter. Definitely into the over-protective stage, maybe even treading into the insanely careful section. It was kind of stupid. All that had happened was that Peter had been kidnapped and tortured. Well, maybe Mr. Stark had an excuse for being over-protective. But still, he was a super hero! He should be able to look after himself.

All of the other Avengers were careful around him as well. Peter was sick of it. Whenever he would enter the room, they would all cast worried glances towards him. Mr. Stark hadn’t wanted him to go back to school for the rest of the semester. Peter had nearly had a heart attack at the idea of missing that much class.

They had come to the agreement that Peter was allowed to go back to school a week after the incident, so long as Spiderman stayed out of the streets for at least a month. Peter had been about to complain, but it was the best deal he could make.

 

So, you could say that Peter was going a little stir crazy. Ned had come to visit a couple of times and brought work for Peter to do.

Most of it was pretty easy, but Peter’s head was still fuzzy, what from lack of entertainment or the fact that he had been through a stressful situation or whatever.

The main point was, the work that usually would have taken Peter an hour at the most, had left him stumped and irritated after half of the day had gone past.

The rest of the Avengers were out on another mission, May was at work, Ned and MJ were still in school and Miss Potts was running around the tower, doing whatever CEO’s of large companies are meant to be doing.

 

After another hour of staring at the page, as if Peter glared at it for long enough, it would miraculously make sense. But for some reason, the universe had decided Peter would have to wait till Mr. Stark got back from the mission to actually do anything. He let out a huge sigh, and fell back down into the pillows, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.

 

 

 

When Peter woke up, he was even more tired than before, and extra hungry.

He glanced around the room. He wasn’t meant to leave his bed, but he was starving, and no one was here to see him go.

 

Carefully, he slipped out of the sheets, his feet touching the cool floor. Peter couldn’t be bothered to put on anything new, so he made his way out the room, wearing nothing but his cotton pajamas. As he got to the end of the hallway, so far avoiding any human contact, Peter heard the voice of FRIDAY echo quietly through the hall.

 

“Mister Parker, you should not be leaving your room.”

Peter cursed under his breath. He’d forgotten about FRIDAY.

“Hey Fri, I’m just getting something to eat.”

There was a pause.

“Mister Parker, you know you shouldn’t be moving around. You could have asked me to get someone to help you.”

He sighed, “I know, I just can’t handle staying in that room any longer. I’m sick of it. Please, just let me stretch my legs. I promise I won’t do anything I’m not supposed to.”  
“You are not supposed to leave your room.” FRIDAY’s voice had a hint of humour in her tone.

“Was that sarcasm Fri? Cause I’m impressed. Please don’t tell Mr. Stark. You can keep an eye on me the entire time if you need. Just let me go to the kitchen. Please FRIDAY?”

There was another long pause, during which Peter waited with batted breath.

“Very well Mr. Parker. I will be watching over you, and if it appears you need assistance, I will send help.”

“Thank you, FRIDAY!”

 

 

 

 

Peter continued on, making his way to the main kitchen, that was shared with the rest of the Avengers, and Miss Potts.

It was devoid of people, but full of clutter and small things that made the room feel like home. The fridge door was covered in photos that had been secretly taken by different people.

There was one of Clint and Sam playing Mario Cart together, both of their faces screwed up in concertation.

 

One of all of them, taken by Pepper, at one of the movie nights. That certain photo, Peter has a copy of, hanging on the wall in his room. It shows all of them smiling and laughing, Steve and Bucky are watching the movie in complete confusion while Sam and Clint are bickering about something or another. Natasha is sneaking her hand into Clint’s bucket of popcorn, while Vision and Wanda are all cuddled up. Rhodey and Mr. Stark are laughing at the looks on Steve and Bucky’s faces, and Peter has his head in Mr. Stark’s lap, a goofy sort of grin on his face. It’s one of Peter’s most prized possessions, and though he’ll deny it, Peter had spent more than a night gazing at it, the happy faces in the photo helping him to sleep.

 

On the counter, Steve had left some leftover cake from the night before. For a hundred or something year-old man, he was a surprisingly good cook.

 

 

 

Peter sat himself down and pulled out the work he had brought with him from his room. He technically wasn’t sneaking anything, he knew FRIDAY was able to see all of the things he did, plus probably checking his heart rate and a thousand other things.

Knowing Mr. Stark’s current mood, she was probably checking out the fortune for his star sign today or looking at the mortality rates of people called Peter sitting in kitchens.

He sighed and let his head bang against the table.

 

Dragging the cake over, he reached for a knife, carefully, so as not to agitate FRIDAY. He really didn’t want to explain to a frantic Miss Potts that an AI with an over-protective programmer was worried about him cutting himself with a butter-knife. He cut himself a slice and began shoveling it into his mouth. God, he hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he couldn’t stop eating.

 

 

 

On about his fourth slice, he heard the low sounds of chatter abruptly coming to a halt. Peter would have noticed it earlier, if he hadn’t been so fixated on his food. What can you say? He had priorities. Turning around, he felt his jaw drop open, and realized, too late that his mouth was probably covered in chocolate.

 

Standing in the doorway, with equally astonished looks, were none other than Bruce Banner, and Thor themselves. Peter made an embarrassing squeaking noise, and immediately wished he could disappear. The butter-knife suddenly seemed surprisingly appealing.

 

 

No one spoke for an agonizingly long period of time. Then finally Thor opened his mouth.

“Hello young one. May I ask what you are doing here?”

Peter made the squealing noise again.

“Oh my god. Oh my god Thor is speaking to me.”

There was another beat of silence.

“Oh right. I ummm…. I kinda live here. Part-time, I guess. But not like a job. Well I have an internship here, I think. I dunno. But yeah so, I live here sometimes and then sometimes I don’t life here and then when I don’t live here, I’m living somewhere else and I’m rambling so I’m going to shut up now.” _Well done Parker, you just made a fool of yourself. Congratulations._

There was some more awkward staring. Finally, Bruce spoke.

“FRIDAY?”

“Mr. Parker does indeed live on the premise for periods of time. Would you like me to contact Boss to tell him that you’ve arrived?”

“No FRIDAY, that’ll be fine.”

“Very well Dr. Banner.”

Another pause. Peter almost wanted to cry. How was this meant to go? He was meant to talk. To talk you need to make sounds. C’mon Peter.

“Sooooo……. You’re Bruce Banner. Like the Bruce Banner, as in-”

“The Hulk, yes, I know.”

“No! Well, yes, but no. You’re one of the most renowned scientists of our generation! I’ve read some of your papers, they’re amazing. I love your one on gamma radiation where-”

“You’ve read my papers?” Bruce cut in.

“Yeah! They’re awesome!”

 

He blinked a few times. “How old are you exactly?”

“I’m sixteen.” Peter straightened himself up, almost like he was a four-year-old proclaiming how amazing they were.

“Those papers were college level at the least. How did you even understand them?”

“Well, some of the sections were slightly confusing, but I understood most of it as-”

“I think I’m going to check out the rooms. You know, make sure that they’re nice and roomy.” Thor interrupted.

The two of them stared at him, and his eyes widened as he made his way out of the room swiftly.

 

 

 

Bruce sat himself down next to Peter, and they began yammering on about all things science. After about an hour, Peter felt his eyes beginning to slide closed, and felt a yawn tugging at the edges of his mouth. Bruce observed at him carefully.

 

“Do you need to go to sleep? It is getting late.”

Peter yawned loudly. “Nah, I’m fine. Keep on talking.”

FRIDAY intervened.

“Dr. Banner, it is in Peter’s best interests to have some rest now. He isn’t supposed to be out of bed at all. Would you please escort him back?”

Peter glared at the ceiling, “Tattletale.”

Bruce smiled softly.

“C’mon, we can talk on the walk over.”

He reached out a hand to help Peter up and found himself holding nearly all of the teenage boy’s weight.

 

 

They staggered back to Peter’s room, Peter himself barely able to keep his eyes open. He collapsed onto the bed and Bruce turned to go.

“Wait.” He called out.

Bruce paused.

“Can you stay? I mean you don’t have to if you don’t want.”

“I’d love to stay Peter. DO you want me to just sit here?”

“Can you talk. It can be about anything. Just your voice.”

“Of course.” Bruce moved so he was sitting on the edge of Peter’s bed, and reached out his hand, slowly stroking his hair. Peter felt his eyes slide closed, and a breath escaped him.

“A long time ago, in India, I met a little girl called Sadie…”

Peter fell asleep there, to the sound of Bruce’s soft voice and with his hands in his hair, keeping a steady rhythm, lulling him to the darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to have a shorter gap between chapters next time, hopefully I can get the next one in a couple of weeks or so, but no guarantees. Also the whole thing with Banner and Thor appearing was the best I could come up with, kinda a easy way to shove them into the story, cause they are really cool characters. This one didn't have much plot sorry, but I was kinda just trying to get something done, and something a lot less dark than the last one. (Sorry about that by the way, my mind can be a scary place). As always, please leave a comment or kudos, I really love constructive criticism or if you have any suggestions or requests for the next chapter let me know. I can't believe I only have two chapters left to go! I'm also working on some fics for other fandoms, but I'll see how that goes, as well as some of my own original work. But I dunno about that, cause it's pretty bad, at least in my opinion. Let me know if you want me to post any of that, or if you even like my writing at all. Anyway, this is going on for too long and it's actually really late as I write this sooo..... Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


	5. Wanda Maximoff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter has a pretty rough night, and Wanda is there to help out the Spiderbaby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry about not updating again for ages, I really suck with schedules. I actually wrote all of this on the plane to Rome, so I don’t know if it will be the best quality. I actually found this one my favourite to write so far, and since it’s late, it is extra-long compared to usual. Yeah, so I’m not even in Australia anymore which is weird, especially since my body clock is all messed up now. I feel like it’s about the end of the day but it’s actually like lunch. Which is weird. Anyway, that might mean I write a lot more, or you don’t hear from me at all. Sorry I’m kind of babbling. 
> 
> Also, this chapter kind of features a panic attack. I didn’t really realise till I was actually writing it down but the way the whole thing works out is pretty close I reckon. It was actually based on something that has happened to me occasionally, especially when I am exhausted. I don’t know exactly. Anyway, just thought I’d put it out there in case that is a trigger or something for any of you guys. I don’t really know how all this stuff works, sorry about that. This is my second fanfiction ever in my life so… yeah. 
> 
> BTW this chapter is about Peter and Wanda because someone asked me to do her. (I didn’t actually name you cause I’m not sure if I’m meant to or not. Like I said I’m still new to this). Ok I’ll let you actually read the fic now because this is getting way too long. ENJOY!

Peter never thought he’d be excited to go back to school. Well, you learn something new every day.

 

“You’ve got everything? Books? Homework? Lunch?” Mr. Stark was in full on dad mode, not that Peter would ever admit to thinking of him like that.

“Yes, I have everything I need. Can I go now?”

 

He was given a once over, and after Mr. Stark seemed to think that Peter was okay, he nodded.

 

“Remember, if you are in any pain at all, just call or go to the nurse’s office and I can come and pick you up.”

“Yes, Mr. Stark.”

“It’s Tony kid, how many times do I have to tell you.”

“Of course… Mr. Stark.”

 

He groaned and Peter took that as his cue to leave, grinning and waving to the small band of Avengers standing in the hallway. They all waved back, and Steve stepped up and slowly pulled Tony away for he seemed to be on the verge of changing his mind and forcing Peter to stay back another day.

He turned away, and ran down the corridor, sliding into the elevator and taking it down to where Happy was waiting for him.

 

The man hadn’t stopped apologizing to Peter. He was still certain that it was his fault he’d been kidnapped. His expression was constantly guilty, which only served to make Peter feel bad. Honestly, sometimes Peter wished Happy didn’t care, although a small part of him was glad that it had affected Happy so much. That Happy cared about him enough to be still torn up about it a week later. Peter shoved that part of him down.

 

The drive to Midtown was pretty boring all things considered. No freaky space aliens, no mad robots trying to take over the world, nothing. Peter sighed and rested his head against the window.

 

“Peter!” Ned rushed to meet him as he walked into the building. Peter grinned. He’d seen Ned yesterday, but his expression was like they had been separated for years.

“Hey man!”

Ned grabbed a hold of Peter’s arm and began literally dragging him into the building.

“God Peter, you know how boring it has been without you! And Flash’s face when you didn’t show up at school for ages was priceless. I swear that dude is obsessed with you.”

He groaned. “Damnit, I forgot about Flash.”

Ned shrugged with a sympathetic look on his face.

“You should have heard the rumours man. A bunch of people thought you were dead.”

“I was half dead.”

 

Ned winced and Peter immediately wanted to take back his words. He hadn’t ever really considered how it must be for Ned, to not know whether or not his friend would be alive the next day. If Peter was in his shoes, he probably would have tapped him down with duct-tape.

Suddenly, he felt far more grateful for Mr. Stark’s more basic methods of containing him.

 

“I’m fine now though. Anyway, what do we have first?”

Ned glanced at Peter but ignored the sudden shift in topics.

“I think we have Chem first. C’mon.”

 

 

 

 

The day went past in a flash, with only a few incidents with Flash himself.

Peter groaned as Ned helped him to his feet.

 

“Peter, you really need to tell a teacher about this. Or even, I dunno, film it or something.”

Peter rolled his eyes.

“Ned, it’s fine. I can deal with it.”

“Peter-”

“Look Ned. I can walk this off. Some other people can’t. Anyway, you know what I do, if I can deal with that, then I can deal with this.”

 

Ned gave him a dubious look. Peter knew he wasn’t at his best right now. He was covered in bruises, and his skin was deathly pale. He knew if he looked in the mirror his eyes would be ringed with dark shadows from the lack of decent sleep he had been getting.

It was honestly a miracle that Mr. Stark hadn’t noticed yet. Or Aunt May for that matter.

After a pause, Ned let out a long sigh.

“Yeah, you can deal with it, but you shouldn’t have to. Now come on, you have to get to the car before Mr. Stark sends out search parties for you.” He let out a laugh as he saw the horrified expression cross Peter’s face. _Oh, God. It was Friday._

 

Peter bolted, yelling goodbye to Ned as he sped through the crowds forming at the doors.

“Sorry, sorry.”

He locked eyes with Happy, who was just getting out of the car, his hand on his phone. Waving slightly, with an apologetic smile on his face, he slid into the backseat.

“Hey Happy.”

“Hey kid. Do you want to tell me where those bruises are from?”

He coughed.

“I um… I fell over.”

Happy raised an eyebrow in the rear-view mirror.

“And fell onto your neck, did you?”

Peter knew his face was bright red.

“Yep.”

“Kid…” Happy paused. “You know, you can talk to me, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. I would totally talk to you if I needed to tell you something. Which I don’t. Because there isn’t anything going on?” Peter phrased it as if it was a question. _Wow, I really can’t lie._

“Sure kid. Anyway, I’m here.”

 

They drive the rest of the way back to the compound in silence, Peter with his headphones in, getting a start on his homework. Whoever invented algebra was definitely out to get him.

 

 

 

 

The rest of the evening went by without any hiccups. Peter said goodnight to everyone, and sent a message to May, telling her he was fine.

 

He curled himself up in a ball and forced his eyes shut. Nothing. He tried telling FRIDAY to dim the lights, then to put them back on. He tried music, he even made himself a hammock from his webs and tried lying in there. Finally, he felt himself fall off to sleep.

 

Screaming. He was screaming so loud. He was begging someone, anyone to help him.

“Peter?”

He turned to see May running towards him.

“Here! I’m over here, please!”

“Peter. Where are you?”

“I’m here! May. I’m over here!” his throat was rough, and he felt himself choking. _No, no please. I’m here, I’m here please._

May kept on walking. Right past where he was tied down. Peter found himself thrashing. “MAY! I’m here please. Don’t leave me. Please.”

It was too late. She was gone and she wasn’t coming back.

Peter couldn’t breathe. His body was wracked with sobs.

 

“Pete?”

_Mr. Stark._

“Peter, where are you?”

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. _I’m here._ He was pleading with anyone, whoever was there. _Please find me._

“Peter? Peter come back. Why did you leave?”

 _I didn’t._ He tried to say. _I haven’t gone anywhere._

Peter watched as Mr. Stark moved on, just as Aunt May had. He watched and he couldn’t move. He watched as he left him all alone and didn’t do anything about it.

 

 

 

 

“ _Peter.”_ He shot up, covered in sweat and…

“Mr. Parker, you appeared to have had another nightmare. Would you like me to contact Mr. Stark?”

He forced himself to breathe.

“No FRIDAY. I’m fine. Anyway, I don’t want to disturb anyone.”

“Mr. Parker, this is the sixth incident this week. I am sure Boss wouldn’t mind.”

“I said no!”

FRIDAY was silent for a moment, making it clear Peter had offended her.

“I’m sorry FRI. I’m fine though.”

“Very well.” Her tone was disapproving. “I would suggest for you to clean up before you attempt to go back to sleep.”

“Clean up?” Peter frowned.

“You seemed to have soiled your sheets.”

 

Peter froze. _No, no, no._ _Please no._ He looked down. FRIDAY was right. He had pissed himself like a baby.

“FRIDAY?” Peter tried to ignore the quaver in his voice. “Is there a laundry shoot nearby?”

 

FRIDAY’s voice was gentle, as if she could pick up on how close Peter was to another nervous breakdown.

“Of course, Mr. Parker. I’ll illuminate the path for you.”

“Thanks FRI.”

He crawled out of bed and ripped off the sheets, probably with a bit more force than necessary. Tip-toing along the hall, he followed the lights FRIDAY had set out for him. He knew he was trembling badly. Normally he would have snapped out of it by now, but this had shaken him more than usual. He had just peed his pants in bed, something he hadn’t done since his parent’s deaths, years and years ago.

 

 

 

 

He was too caught up in his thoughts and forgot to pay attention to where he was stepping. Peter felt himself lose his balance, and while usually he would be able to right himself easily, this time he went toppling over, right into a vase. Peter watched in horror as it tipped to the ground and shattered with an almighty crash.

 

“No.” He scrambled forwards and reached out, trying to pick up the pieces, ignoring the pain he felt as they dug into his palms.

 

“No, no, no, no, no.” It became a mantra as he repeated himself over and over again. Shuddering he tried to force the pieces back together. Distantly he felt the sheets wrapped around him, and felt a large wet patch pressing against his skin. He couldn’t stand it, it was too much. He was rocking back and forth, clawing at the sheets, the vase pieces on the floor. Peter took in a huge gasping breath to calm himself, but it only made him more agitated. He knew he was crying, but he couldn’t stop and soon he was sobbing.

“Stop, stop, stop.” He pressed his hands against his ears and pressed harder and harder. It wasn’t enough and his hands were wet and sticky. Why were they sticky? Oh god, the blood. _No, no, no, no, no, no, no._ He gasped again. The sheets were so wet. _Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

_STOP._

“Mr. Parker, you need to-”

_Make it stop._

“I need to call Mr. Stark.”

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

“Peter you have to breathe.”

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

_It’s everywhere. Make it stop._

“Peter?”

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

“Oh my god. Peter!”

_Make it stop._

_Make it stop._

_Please, stop, stop._

He could feel someone wrap their arms around him. He desperately tried to break free.

_NO._

_PLEASE!_

_PLEASE._

_Please!_

_Please._

They were carrying him somewhere.

“Peter, I need you to stop moving.”

_Make it stop._ _No, no._

“Peter, I’m sorry. I need you to stop moving.”

A hand pressed against his forehead, and that was the last thing Peter felt before he drifted off into nothingness.

 

 

 

_Peter?_

_Peter are you there?_

_Peter, are you awake?_

_Can you hear me?_

_Sleep now._

_Sleep Peter._

 

 

 

Peter forced his eyes open with a low groan. Wincing from the sudden brightness, he tried to get his eyes to adjust to the new light. Finally, he managed to make out a sleeping figure lying with their head on his bed.

“Hello?” Gently, Peter poked the person’s shoulder.

“I’m up, I’m up.” The figure raised their head.

“Wanda?”

The woman smiled at him.

“Hey Peter. How are you feeling?”

“What am I doing here? What happened?”

Her face fell slightly. “Do you not remember?”

“I…” he scrunched his face up in concertation. He had been sleeping, he’d had a nightmare. The sheets… the vase. Blood. “Oh my god.”

Wanda reached out her hand, so it was resting on his arm. “Hey, hey. It’s ok. It’s ok.”

“What… What did Mr. Stark say?”

“I haven’t told him yet.”

“What?! Why not?”

 

She gave him a once over. “I thought it was your business. Anyway, if you want, I can go get him. But you seemed pretty upset, so I thought it’d be best if I waited till you were actually awake to ask you.”

“Thank you.” Peter was oddly grateful.

There was a beat of silence. Then…

“You know I have nightmares.”

Peter met Wanda’s eyes.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It kind of comes with the job.”

“But you’re a hero.”

“So are you. And I’m sorry. You were thrashing around so much, you were going to get yourself hurt even more. I tried to keep to myself but… I know who you are. And I won’t tell anyone. I swear.”

“Promise.” Peter’s voice was low and shaky still.

“Promise. And, I know what it is like to be the youngest hero. You know you aren’t any less amazing and brave than anyone else here. In fact, you probably are braver than most of us. Just because you have nightmares doesn’t make you weak. And it’s not weak to ask for help. Okay?”

“Ok. But just for now, can we keep this between us?”

“Are you sure?”

Peter nodded.

“Alright then. I can help you go to sleep, you know. At night, I can give you dreamless sleep.”

“You can?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was quiet. So quiet that he only heard it because of his advanced hearing. “Not all of my abilities are monstrous.”

“You are not a monster.”

Wanda’s face was a mask of shock and confusion. “Have you not seen what I can do, what I have done?”

“Of course, I have. You’ve saved people Ms Maximoff.”

“Wanda. Please call me Wanda.”

“You’ve saved people Wanda. You are a hero.”

Her eyes were glistening with tears.

“You are a hero too Peter.”

 

He returned her look with an equally watery grin. “We should hang out more often. We both seem to need someone to tell us to get over ourselves.”

Wanda let out a choked laugh. “I guess we do.”

Peter rolled over slightly to make some extra room on the bed. She pulled herself up and he curled into her as Wanda wrapped her arms round him. Though Peter tried to deny it, he was a touchy-feely person. And he felt safest when he was being held.

“Thanks Wanda.”

“Thank you, Peter.”

Peter drifted off into a dreamless slumber and didn’t wake once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I’m starting to sense a bit of a pattern here with the endings. Sorry about that, I just find it easy to end chapters with people sleeping. I probably need to try to branch out a bit. Anyway. ALSO, did anyone catch the reference? It was like really bad but if you noticed it, tell me in the comments. Please comment!!!! Comments actually mean so much to me, and all of the kudos and bookmarks and all that. You don’t have to or anything, I just wanted to say that all the people who do really make my day. And even if you read my fic it amazes me. And if you have anyone you want to be featured or focused on or anything, please tell me and I’ll try to get the next chapter about them. I ONLY HAVE ONE CHAPTER TO GO OMG YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW AMAZING THAT IS!!!!! If you have any requests for other fics for me to do, I’d love to know. Anyway, I have to go now so BYE! I hope you enjoyed reading my fic and yeah. I’ll finish this up cause it is way too long.
> 
> (ONE LAST THING!! Does anyone know how to get rid of the chapter one notes popping up after each chapter? It’s really annoying me. THANKS).


	6. And the one time they all did

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *hastily changes tags* This was totally the idea from the start. I definitely did not make a deal with Satan for another bag of skittles. I would never do something like that. *stuffs face discreetly*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm so so sorry about the long wait. I have been on holidays and away from Wi-Fi for the past three weeks, so I haven't really been able to do anything. But to make up for it, this chapter is way longer than usual. Just for context, this is 13173 words and my usual chapter count is about 2000 or so words. So it's over six times the usual length. I hope that makes up for it. And BTW I saw Endgame today. So if you have seen it, you'd know that this was painful to write. And you are welcome to talk to me about it on Tumblr, (unless you can somehow chat on here? I'm new to the site, I dunno how it works) my account name is oopstheregoesthatlifeofmine. I am completely happy to scream with you about it. But anyway, onto the chapter. I hope you enjoy it!

Peter hated his life. What he had done to deserve this torture was beyond him. It was probably something he had done in a past life. Well screw that past Peter for making him live like this. It had to be about a hundred years of penance. Past him must have been a horrible person.

 

This was all Peter could think and had been thinking for the last five days. And it was all from a yellow slip of paper. Well it wasn’t exactly the paper’s fault, it was more what the paper represented. The cheerful font hid a sinister plot, one Peter was sure the rest of the avengers would never let him live down. And that was why he hadn’t let them see it. But he needed it signed, and he was running out of time.

 

May had gone away on holiday, a cruise to Greece with some of her friends from work, curtesy of Mr. Stark, despite her numerous attempts to deny him. But he was insistent, so off she went. Which left Peter in his current situation.

 

 

“You know, glaring at it won’t change what it says.” MJ slid into the seat next to him.

“You never know.”

“Is Peter still in denial?” Ned sat down on Peter’s other side.

“Yep.” She replied, popping the P sound.

“Why me?” Peter repeated for the fiftieth time that day.

“Because everyone hates you.” There was no bite in her tone.

Peter groaned, slamming his head against the table.

 

The permission slip, or the slip of doom as Peter liked to refer to it as, was simple enough. But every glance towards it filled him with the deepest form or terror he had ever known.

 

_We would like to welcome the Academic Decathlon Team from Midtown High to Stark Industries with an accompanying tour of the Avengers Compound._

The form continued on with all of the nonsense about if you get hurt it isn’t the Industries fault, and NDA’s to sign. But that first sentence was what killed him. Not only was he going to where he worked, (a few weeks after the whole kidnapping situation, Tony had let Peter work as an intern, as he ‘practically did the work of an intern, might as well get the certificate’) but he had to go to his second home, where he was currently living.

 

“Peter!” He blinked as Ned waved his hand in front of his face. “The bell went, we have class.”

 

The rest of the day seemed to go by in some sort of trance. Today was the last day they had to get the forms signed. Peter spent the entire car trip with Happy staring out the window, desperately thinking of some way to avoid this disaster. Happy seemed concerned about his silence but tried to hide as well as he could. Suddenly, Peter was hit with the only idea that wouldn’t end in total humiliation for him. _Pepper._ If he got her to sign his form, the rest of the avengers wouldn’t find out till the actual tour, which would give them no time to plan any horrific embarrassing situation for him.

 

Peter practically sprinted out of the car, yelling a quick goodbye to Happy as he slammed the door shut.

“Hey FRI, where’s Pepper?”

“Miss Potts is currently in the common room. Would you like me to take you to her?”

Peter frowned before answering, “Who else is there?”

“The entire team is currently there Mr. Parker.”

“It’s Peter, FRIDAY. And do you mind asking Pepper to come somewhere more private? I have something to ask her. I don’t think I can come into the common room for this.”

“Of course, Peter.”

He grinned.

“Where would you like me to direct Miss Potts?”

“Um…. Could you take her to my bedroom?”

“Very well.”

“Thanks FRIDAY!”

 

As the elevator reached the floor for sleeping, Peter hopped off and snuck into his room, hoping to avoid being noticed by anyone else. No one seemed to see him. He lay down, closing his eyes. Letting out a huge yawn, Peter kicked off his shoes. He felt like he could fall asleep, after all, he’d had a long da-

“Peter, Boss is calling.”

“No FRIDAY! Don’t let him through. Hang up, hang up!”

“I’m sorry Peter, he has activated the Baby Play Phone Protocol.” Peter groaned. Why did Mr. Stark have to come up with such stupid names for the protocols?

“Peter? Are you there?” Mr. Stark’s voice was panicked, causing Peter to jolt up. _Had something happened? Was someone hurt?_ “Pepper is on her way, what’s happening? Should I call the suits? Do you need the avengers?”

“What?! No! No, no, no. No.”

“Peter?” His voice was far less panicked and now just confused.

“Why on earth would I need the avengers?”

“FRIDAY said you needed Pepper to come to your room, because you weren’t able to come to the common room.”

 

Peter’s head slammed against his bed. He really needed to get Ned to help him teach FRIDAY subtlety.

 

“I’m fine Mr. Stark.”

“Are you sure kid? Why couldn’t you come in here? Are you hiding another injury?”

“I’m fine.”

“So why couldn’t you come down?”

Peter could hear Pepper’s heels clacking against the floor across the other side of the compound. His enhanced hearing occasionally was useful for something other than letting him know things he was far better of leaving unknown. It sounded like she was sprinting, she hadn’t gotten the memo then.

“It’s just something I wanted to ask her. Um… MJ needed me to interview her for a school project.” He was a bad liar and he knew it, he could only hope that Mr. Stark didn’t notice.

“Why couldn’t you come in here?” Mr. Stark’s tone was suspicious.

“I had homework.”

“Homework?” Peter could hear him raise his eyebrow.

“I um… I wanted to get started, so I decided to multitask.”

“Mhmm. Sure, you did.”

“I can hear Pepper coming now, so I’ve got to go. Bye Mr. Stark!”

“Wait kid! No. I need to-”

“FRIDAY, finish call.”

“FRIDAY don’t end ca-”

 

Silence spread across the room again.

“Peter!” Pepper burst through the door.

“Hey Miss Potts. Sorry about that. I just wanted to talk to you in private, but FRIDAY-” Peter glared at the ceiling, “-hasn’t seemed to have learnt how to take hints.”

 

Pepper let out a sigh and collapsed onto the bed next to him. Though she often kept up her no nonsense, business façade around outsiders, when they were alone, she was more like a tired parent. Which to be fair, she was. She was the CEO of Stark Industries as well as looking after most of the avengers. Although Mr. Rogers was the ‘Captain’ of the team, Pepper and Natasha were the ones who actually kept them all together.

 

“God, Peter. Tony was about to kill someone.”

“Hmm?”

She grinned, “I swear, the second FRIDAY said your name, he was sitting right to attention. And when she said you weren’t able to come into the common room, I’m pretty sure he was about from calling the suit.”

Peter snorted. “Yeah, I got that basic idea.”

“He called you?”

“Yep, he was wondering if I needed to get the avengers to assemble.”

 

Pepper burst into laughter, her eyes beginning to glisten with tears. “The team would have assembled in seconds. You should have seen all of the other’s faces. Rhodey and Steve were about to jump up, Clint leaped to the rafters, so we might be seeing him in a minute, Wanda and Vision are out right now, but I reckon they would have caused a mess too. Nat had grabbed a blade, where she keeps them, I honestly have no clue. Thor had Miljnor in hand, and Bruce was a few seconds from hulking out. Sam was reaching for his weapons, Bucky already had his gun in hand. Even Scott had his suit in hand. You have no idea how fast I sprinted here.”

“They were that worried over me?”

Pepper rolled slightly to face him. “What do you mean? Of course, they were. They would die for you Peter. Actually, I don’t think that there is anything that they wouldn’t do if you asked.”

“What, even kill someone?” Peter joked.

“Probably.”

 

Peter blinked. “What?”

“Do you know what happened to that man who hurt you?”

“I… no. I never asked.”

“Do you want to know?”

He frowned slightly. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Pepper smiled, the look making him shiver. He did not want to be on her bad side.

“That piece of dirt is in the worst prison imaginable, but first, we ruined his life. We discredited everything he had ever done in his life, all of his bank accounts just suddenly were hacked into and unfortunately, his insurance happened to have had a mistake in the paperwork, rendering them completely useless. He won’t ever see anything outside of his prison again.”

Yeah, Peter definitely didn’t want to be on her bad side.

“So, who did all that?”

“We all did Peter. Every single one of us helped, even Steve. I think it was a good bonding activity for us all. Tony wanted to kill him, he really did. And I think most of them would have helped. But in the end, it was Nat who thought that ruining his life would be worse. Happy and May even helped out with some… files.”

 

Peter felt oddly touched. He knew most normal people shouldn’t feel warm and fuzzy inside after hearing about someone’s life being completely destroyed, but the fact that they cared so much shocked him. Peter had always been in a relatively small family. At times it had just been him and May. Now having a team of superheroes who had his back was a foreign, but not entirely unwelcome experience. In the back of his head, he felt a small twinge of sympathy for the man, but he shoved that down. He deserved everything that came to him.

 

 

 

 

He lay there with Pepper for a while, just mindlessly chatting, during which, Peter searched his mind for a way to bring up the trip. A loud thud interrupted their conversation about the best ice-cream brands.

“Mr. Barton?”

The spy in question jumped to his feet, quickly dusting himself off.

“Peter! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, don’t worry.”

It was too late, Clint had already launched himself forwards, pulling Peter up to his feet and scanning him for injuries. A second later, another figure dropped gracefully down.

“Clint, I told you. It was a false alarm.”

“Yes, yes Nat. Just wanted to make sure.”

“Come on birdbrain.” Natasha took a step forwards and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him back and forcing him back up into the vents.

“You sure you’re fine?” She gave him a worried glance.

“Yeah, I’m sure Ms Romanov.”

“Alright then.” She offered a small smile to Pepper, then flipped up and crawled away through the vents after Clint. There was some muffled swearing as Clint complained about the vents being ‘too small for two’.

 

Pepper laughed quietly after them. “They may be protective, but they are pretty embarrassing for the earth’s mightiest heroes. Well, except Nat. She’s the only one of them with a shred of sense.”

Peter seized the opportunity. “Speaking of embarrassing…” He went on to explain the entire situation to an amused Pepper.

By the end she was really in tears. “Only you Peter, only you.”

“Can you please sign it? And don’t tell them, I’m begging you.”

“Of course, I will sweetheart. You know they will find out eventually though?”

“I know, but I just want them to have the least time to prepare.”

“That can be dangerous you know. The less time they have to form a plan, the less time you have to stop it and the more likely it is to be catastrophic.”

Peter gave her the puppy eyes.

He could see the moment she broke. “Alright. I won’t tell them. Here, let me sign.”

 

 

 

They talked for a little while after that, then Pepper had to go, so she ruffled his hair and wished him luck with his homework. And reminded him about six times that dinner would be ready relatively soon.

 

 

 

After FRIDAY alerted him that it was time to eat, he stuffed the slip into his bag, then covered it with a jacket. Living with a bunch of geniuses and spies made it hard to keep secrets.

 

 

 

Making his way downstairs, Peter could see the entire team plus Pepper sitting down. He took a moment to peer inside.

 

Although they had been together in the compound for a little less than a year, the entire common area was full of evidence of them all. There were all sorts of computers littering the area and enough weapons to show it was not a normal living space.

The couches were organised into the set areas, with everyone having their own seat. Mario Cart was set up in the corner, the controllers already worn from the many tournaments played.

Bucky had a plate of cookies on the counter, which he was surprising apt at baking.

There were a few stains from the paintball war last week and the area was full of Peter’s schoolbooks and other things.

Cap had his drawing kit out and Clint had all his arrows laid round, which Pepper was sure to hassle him about later.

There were a few giant-sized Lego sets thanks to Scott and a pillow fort that had started off as a joke and turned into a fully-fledged fortress that could fit the entire team. Peter grinned as Pepper met his eyes and winked at him.

 

“Hey Pete.”

The team turned and not so subtly checked him over for injures of any sort.

“What’s cooking?” Peter asked, trying to ignore their stares.

“Peter! You have to do it right!” Clint groaned.

“Huh?”

“What’s cooking, good looking? Doesn’t ring any bells?”

“Nope.” He grinned, popping the p. “You’re just old.”

 

Wanda snorted, drawing Peter’s attention to her.

“You’re back! How was it?”

“I’ll tell you if you sit down. I can’t eat this all alone, I need your help! I don’t want to hurt Cap’s feelings.”

“I can hear you.” Steve said, smiling softly.

Peter slipped into the seat next to him.

“Please, Capsicle over here can’t hear a thing. He’s going deaf.” Mr. Stark teased. The rest of the team snickered while Steve flushed bright red.

 

“You know, all this domestic stuff is really good for you guys. You’re growing.” Everyone turned to face Scott.

“I did it, again, didn’t I?”

Peter interrupted before everyone could tell him off for ‘ _ruining the moment’_. “You were fine Mr. Lang. I agree with you anyway. Those two bonding is cute. They can get matching mugs. _World’s best Grandpa’s._ ”

“Hey! Hold on a sec! I’m definitely getting that mug for Cap, but since when was I a grandpa? I’m in fighting form!”

“Keep lying to yourself Mr. Stark.”

Rhodey laughed as Mr. Stark spluttered.

“Ungrateful.”

 

 

The rest of the dinner continued on in that manner, and for a moment, Peter managed to convince himself that the excursion wouldn’t be too painful. By the time he was lying back down in bed, he was back into the thought process of the most efficient way to sink into the ground forever. It was tomorrow. Oh God, he wasn’t going to make it. This was it. This was the last time he’d ever sleep in this bed again. He’d have to flee the country to avoid the shame. Apparently, Devon was nice this time of year.

 

 

 

 

Peter spent the entire drive to school contemplating his existence.

“Are you sure you’re fine kid?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m just great Happy. Just so happy. Ha. Ha, ha, ha. Did you see what I did there?”

Happy raised an eyebrow. “Okay…”

The rest of the drive was in silence.

 

 

By the time they arrived Peter was practically hyperventilating. Happy gave him one final worried glance before he raced off.

 

 

“Ned! Ned, there you are!” Peter barrelled forwards, nearly knocking over five different students.

“Peter! I thought you’d bail.”

“Nah, then I would have had to explain why. Anyway, even if I’d stayed, I would have seen you guys round.”

“Yeah right Penis. Keep on telling those lies. We’ll all find out the truth today.” Flash sneered, pushing into him.

“Flash I’ve told you a thousand times, I’m not lying.”

“As if. Anyway, even if you are telling the truth, it’d only be because they pity you, or you’re like a slut.”

Peter closed his eyes. “Flash, shut up.”

“Oohhh. Pulling out the real big guns there, Parker. Such foul language. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth? Oh wait, you don’t have one!” Flash laughed at his own joke, his stupid friends chuckling along behind him. Honestly, he couldn’t seem more like a villain if he tried.

“Peter, c’mon.”

“That’s right Penis. Run along now. Just do as you’re told. Do you do what you’re told for Tony Stark? Get right down there and-”

“Eugene, get lost.” MJ strolled over and fixed Flash with her glare she saved for special occasions. Flash gulped and ran away.

 

 

“Hey Peter. You okay?”

If he was in his right mind, Peter would have been surprised about her actually using his real name.

She normally would just call him loser, with love of course.

“Peter?” Ned put his hand on his arm. “Peter, you’re shaking.”

He forced himself to take a deep breath. “Yeah. Fine. I’m fine.”

“Peter-”

“I’m fine.” He wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince.

“You know if FRIDAY picks up on Flash…”

Peter froze. “Oh no. Oh no.”

“I think it’s time for them to know anyway.”

“You don’t understand, they will kill him. Literally. He will be ripped to shreds. Actual shreds. There will be little pieces of him we’ll have to pick up. I can’t have that on my conscious. And it’d ruin the carpet.”

 

“Personally,” MJ frowned, “I think he deserves it. But you don’t really have any control in this situation. What happens, happens. Just hope he doesn’t try anything else today.”

Peter groaned. “This is it. This is the end of my life.”

Ned and MJ shared a look.

“Eighty-seven.” Ned marked it down.

“Let’s try to get to a hundred.” MJ gave him a slap on the back and made her way towards the bus. Ned offered a sympathetic glance, then grabbed his arm and dragged him after her.

 

 

 

They sat together at the back of the bus, while MJ sketched Peter’s face for the _People In Distress_ section. Peter had stopped worrying about Flash and was back to panicking mode again.

“Ned, hold him still, I’m trying to get him at the right angle.”

 

 

 

 

 

Peter had been to the tower a thousand times over, but he still sucked in his breath with the rest of the class when they drew up to it. Craning his head, he could just see the Avengers logo on the side, which Mr. Stark had replaced after the rogue Avengers had been pardoned and he could glimpse a faint outline of the Stark Industries logo above it.

 

“Typical example of wealth being used in ridiculously useless ways for the sake of beautification.” MJ muttered to herself.

“MJ, Mr. Stark and Pepper have donated millions, if not billions to charity.”

“Yet they still own this tower.”

“Peter, you aren’t going to convince her.”

“But Pepper and Mr. Stark are good people!”

MJ looked at him. “I never said they weren’t. I just said they wasted a lot of money. Anyway, they keep you from dying, how bad can they be? And, Pepper Potts is amazing. You have me there.”

Peter smiled. He hated the idea of his friends not liking his family. Wow. Hold on a second. Where had that come from?

“Peter? Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Peter fixed his eyes on his friends.

“Guys,” he hissed, “are the Avengers like my family?”

They stared at him with twin expressions of confusion.

“Um… duh.”

“What?”

“You didn’t know?” Ned snickered quietly.

“But how?”

 

MJ held up her hands and began counting on her fingers.

“One, you eat with them _and_ live with them half the time. Two, they help you with your homework. Three, they have all sorts of nicknames for you. Four, they all love you even though half the time you are a weirdo. Who the hell thinks it’s a good idea to mix gummy bears and bacon?”

“It was delicious!”

MJ ignored him and kept on counting. “Five, they tease you heaps. Six, they’ve picked you up from school on multiple occasions. Seven, you go on family holidays-”

“Missions.” Peter interrupted.

“You go on _family holidays_ together. Eight, they know all of your allergies, which for real, you have way too many. Nine, they bake cookies and leave them out for you to eat because they ‘ _know you love them’_.”

“That’s just Bucky.”

“Ten,” MJ wiggled her pinkie finger, “they will take up any opportunity to embarrass you as much as possible.”

Peter groaned. “I hate my life.”

MJ rolled her eyes. “Sure, you do loser. Most people would kill to be living your life.”

“Most people haven’t lived my life. And this is the end of mine.”

His friends shared a look. “Eighty-eight.”

 

 

 

They all trooped off the bus, making their way towards the front of the building. There was a security guard standing out the front, thankfully it wasn’t Happy, otherwise Peter would have lost from the very beginning.

Mr. Harrington gave them one last lecture about being on their best behaviour and then they all were allowed in.

“Hello Midtown High! Welcome to Stark Industries. I will be your tour guide for today and I will be coming with you to the Avengers Compound to give you a tour there as well. My name is Tyler.”

Peter held back a scream. Tyler was one of the older interns who also helped give tours. And unfortunately, Peter know Tyler well.

 

 

 

After Mr. Stark had made Peter an official intern, he had been allowed to meet all of the other Stark Industries interns.

They were all collage age or older, so when they’d first met him, they were pretty dubious about him working with them.

After a week, they all started to get over it and by now, the departments were constantly arguing over who got, ‘ _Peter Time’._ They were like a bunch of little kids squabbling over who got to be the mum and dad in a make-believe game.

 

Tyler was one of the younger interns, he was only twenty-two and he and Zoe had accepted the roles of his big brother and sister. There was no way that Tyler wouldn’t recognise him.

 

 

 

“Alright, I’m going to call out your names, in no particular order and I’d like you to come up and collect your security badge. This is to let you around both buildings, but once you have left for today, they will be deactivated and useless. So, they will be a cool souvenir for you guys, but otherwise they will be an unusable bit of card. For today, _do not_ lose these. We don’t reprint passes, so if you lose it, we’ll have to escort you outside and you can spend the rest of the trip in the bus. Got it? Good. First up, Thompson, Eugene.”

 

Tyler went on, listing all of the names. Peter looked at MJ and Ned in horror. He had brought his own pass with him because Mr. Stark had it drilled into his skull that he must have his pass on him at all times. He’d even made Peter’s specially so it could fit in his suit without bulging. But did his friends…

 

They both nodded and reached into their pockets. _Thank God._ He didn’t think he’d manage to get through this without him. Anyway, even if he’d forgotten his pass, Peter would still be able to ask FRIDAY, who would let him in without a second thought.

 

 

“That’s all, is everyone ready to go through?”

“Hold on a second. Excuse me, Tyler, three of my students haven’t gotten passes yet.”

 

Flash snickered and if Peter didn’t have enhanced hearing, he wouldn’t have caught it. “They’ve found out he was lying, and his friends were in on it too. Parker’s gonna get expelled.”

 

“I’m sorry?” Tyler looked down at the box, then reached into his pocket to double check his sheet. “Nope, that was all of the passes.”

“There must have been a mistake somewhere.”

“I’m sorry, all the passes were printed this morning. I can’t get anymore made. There is nothing I can do.”

“No, no. These students payed for this trip, they need to get to go on this trip.”

“I’m sorry, there is nothing that I can do.”

“But-”

 

MJ stepped forwards. “We’ve already got passes Mr. Harrington.”

He turned around to look at them. “Michelle, I know that you are having fun, but this lie has gone on long enough.”

 

Peter felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach. He knew that some of the kids didn’t believe him about his internship, but he’d thought that the teachers had trusted him.

 

“I’m sorry, Tyler. I’ll just quickly escort these children to the bus. I’m so sorry about all of this.”

Tyler frowned. “Ok…”

Peter took a deep breath. “Wait. MJ’s telling the truth Mr. Harrington. We already have passes.”

 

Mr. Harrington gave him a look. “Peter. I know that this is hard for you and I understand that sometimes you want to tell stories to make more friends, but like I said to Miss Jones, this has gone on for too long. I can’t believe you would try to keep up this silly tale even while we are being graced to go on a tour like this. Now Mr. Parker, you and your friends can come with me to the bus, where hopefully you can think carefully about the consequences of your actions.”

 

Tyler cut in. “Hold on a second. Mr. Parker?”

“Yes, yes. Please don’t judge the school on these kid’s behaviour. It isn’t the rest of the student’s fault that these ones don’t know when to stop.”

“No, no.” Tyler shook his head. “Peter?”

 

Peter met his eyes. He knew his own were watering slightly, as much as he tried to stop, it hurt that his own teachers didn’t believe him. “Hey Tyler.”

 

The rest of the team, excluding Ned and MJ, looked baffled.

“Peter! I didn’t realise it was you. Sorry about that.” He turned and faced Peter’s friends. “And you must be Ned and MJ.”

They both nodded, looking relieved.

“Okay then. That clears everything up. Come on through.”

“Hold on Tyler. You know these students?”

Tyler raised an eyebrow. “Of course. Peter is an intern here. Did he not tell you?”

“He did, but I thought…”

 

 _I thought he was lying._ He didn’t say it, but he might well have.

Tyler’s face instantly hardened. He was protective of Peter, probably overly so. Once, Peter had come into the intern labs with bruises covering his face and Tyler was ready to kill. Instead he had stayed and helped Peter clean up himself. Peter had told him he’d fallen down a staircase, which had been true. He had just neglected to tell the fact that Flash had pushed him down.

 

“Well, Peter here is an intern and a great one for that matter. Now that all of that is cleared up, are you ready to start our tour?”

 

Mr. Harrington had the grace to look sheepish, while Flash merely sneered.

“He probably bribed them.” He whispered. Peter ignored him and made his way over to the scanning stations. He usually went in through the back exit, so he could avoid all of the people round here.

 

 

As they went through, scanning their passes FRIDAY announced them.

“Thompson, Eugene. Tour Student. Level 1.” Flash smirked as he went through. Ned and MJ looked at Peter in horror. Oh no.

“Jones, Michelle. Constant Guest. Level 6." MJ flushed at the stares from the rest of the class.

“Leeds, Ned. Constant Guest. Level 6.”

Peter gulped as Tyler gave him a wicked grin.

“You’re next Pete.”

Peter fixed him with a glare which Tyler threw off. Apparently, his glare was about as ferocious as a puppy. Which Peter thought was unfair, dogs could be scary.

“Parker, Peter. Hello Peter. Do you wish me to inform Mr. Stark of your arrival?”

“No, FRIDAY. That’s fine.”

“Are you sure, I’m certain he would be interested in finding out.”

“No FRIDAY.”

 

The rest of the team’s eyes widened as the exchange went on.

“Very well Peter.” The one time she called him Peter was the time when formality might be welcome. Just typical. “Baby Fencing Protocol activated.” Peter held in another scream.   


 

 

Mr. Stark had originally given Peter full access to the tower, but after a while, he’d decided that Peter needed some more restrictions. It was constantly being updated, such as last week where Peter had accidently blown up something in Bruce’s lab. Mr. Stark had run down, seen the mess and said, “FRIDAY, update Baby Fencing Protocol, Petey isn’t allowed into Brucie’s lab without supervision.”

 

 

 

Flash had gone a bright red and was hissing to his friends, “He must have hacked in. He must have hacked in.”

Ned grinned, happy the attention was off him. Some friend he was.

“Alright Midtown. Let’s start the tour.”

 

 

The tour was the generic sort of look round. They went to a couple of the labs, but once you’ve seen one of them, you’ve seen them all. Whenever they passed a room, one of the people inside were sure to recognise Peter. Once one had noticed him and called out, it was like being fed to the seagulls.

“Peter!”

“Hey Baby Stark.”

 

 

 

That was another nickname he’d gotten around the company. He apparently looked and acted just like Mr. Stark, so they started calling him that. That and Baby Avenger. All because Bucky had come in while he was working once, delivered some cookies, ruffled his hair and left.

 

“Baby Stark?” Abraham frowned.

Peter froze, racking his brain for an excuse. Thankfully, Tyler seemed to take pity on him.

“Peter is Mr. Stark’s personal assistant.” Hold on. That didn’t help.

“Tyler, shut up.” Peter hissed under his breath. Tyler clearly heard him, but he merely grinned and continued on like he hadn’t heard a thing. “Peter is constantly around, either talking on behalf of Stark, or with him like a mini me. So, he got the nickname.”

“Tyler, how about we continue the tour?”

“Whatever you say Baby Stark.”

 

 

 

 

 

After a few hours, Peter could blend in with the red of the Iron Man suit.

Flash was a similar colour. When no one else was looking, Flash grabbed onto his arm and pulled him into a side corridor.

“How are you doing it?” He snarled.

“How am I doing what?”

“Are you bribing them? But you can barely afford a clean pair of shoes, you could never pay a company.”

Peter sighed. “Flash, how hard is it to believe that I work here.”

“You couldn’t! I looked it up. Stark Industries doesn’t hire high school students. And even if they did, they wouldn’t hire someone like _you._ ”

“Flash, let go of me.”

Flash tightened his grip. Peter winced as his back pressed harder against the wall. It would be so easy to throw him off. He could throw him across the room with his pinkie finger.

“Not until you tell me how you are doing it.”

Peter looked up to the roof and prayed it was too dark for FRIDAY to see.

“Flash, for the last time. I. Work. Here. Now let go of me. They’re probably wondering where we are.”

 

Flash sneered, then let go of his collar. He tramped out of the hallway. Peter followed after him. Tyler was still explaining how the building was strong enough to withstand alien attacks. Ned glanced over at him, tilting his head slightly. _Are you okay?_ Peter nodded. _I’m fine._ MJ just watched. She didn’t seem to be able to understand their looks yet, but Peter was pretty sure she’d learn soon enough.

 

 

 

“And this is the Avengers museum. It is pretty small compared to the actual compound, but you’ll be able to explore that this afternoon. So, have a quick look round now, then we are going to hop onto the bus. The compound is a couple of miles upstate, but the drive should be relatively efficient. Now go have a look!” The students milled around, most rushed off to the Iron Man exhibition, or the Captain America one.

 

“Hey look! They have a Spider-Man section!” Flash yelled, pushing his way over to look at it.

Ned and MJ looked at Peter.

“I have an exhibit?” Peter whispered.

Ned grinned. “C’mon.”

 

They followed through the path Flash had made and stood a little behind him. The exhibit was admittedly pretty small, but it was for him. It had his original suit, with a small note in Mr. Stark’s handwriting. _We all start somewhere kid._ It had a little information about him, as well as a fun facts page.

_Did you know Spider-Man has a fear of spiders?_

“Really?” MJ whispered under her breath, so only Peter could hear her. “You’re scared of spiders?”

“Hey! They’re creepy!”

Peter wasn’t exactly sure when MJ had figured out his secret, but she definitely did. Whenever she sat in front of Peter in class, she’d open up some article about Spider-Man’s latest heroic event. Ned had asked her to join the Spider-Man fan club, which Peter had thought was a _joke_ he had made. But Ned actually went along with it and MJ had joined, but Peter was pretty sure it was just because it annoyed him.

 

Flash had his face pressed up against the glass and was staring at the exhibit like it was the Holy Grail. Peter wondered what he would think if he figured out that _the great hero Spider-Man_ was actually just Puny Penis Parker who he’d been bullying since elementary school. He was pretty sure it would involve some heavy swearing.

 

 

 

 

“Ok then! It’s time to start the second half of the tour. Get back onto the bus.”

As they all trooped out, Tyler grabbed Peter’s arm.

“Do they know?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Don’t you dare tell them!”

“So, they don’t. Well, this’ll be exciting.”

“I hate you.”

“Love you too Baby Avenger.”

 

 

 

The bus ride was noisy, painfully so. If everyone had seemed excited to go to Stark Industries, they were practically dying on the drive to the compound.

“Do you think we will see any Avengers?”

“I bet we see Captain America!”

“I want to see them working out!”

“Yeah! Black Widow’s hot, I want to see her training!”

Peter wrinkled his nose. Tyler looked back and met his eyes.

 _These kids are messed up._ He mouthed.

_I know._

 

 

 

 

They got off all together. And in that moment, Peter saw his life’s end.

“This is it.” He whispered. “This is the last time I will ever walk this earth. I’m really going to die here.”

“Ninety-eight. Two more to go.”

Standing at the entrance of the compound was none other than Happy Hogan. Peter tried to hide behind his friends, to no avail.

Happy’s eyes fixed on him and a flash of recognition spread across his face. They all trooped in past him, Tyler starting off the tour straight away. Happy reached out an arm and whispered quickly to Peter.

“No wonder you looked scared this morning.”

“Happy, please don’t tell them.”

“They’re going to find out anyway. They don’t let anyone pass through here undetected, especially if it’s their kid.” He chuckled at Peter’s expression. “It’s been nice knowing you.”

 

 

 

 

 

“Welcome to the Avengers Compound! This is where all of the Avengers live, though some, like Antman and Hawkeye, have other houses where they can stay.”

Cindy put her hand up. “Do we get to go to their training room?”

Tyler frowned. “You guys seem really keen on that room.”

There were a few squeals about seeing some ‘hot bods’. Tyler made a disgusted face. “No, to answer your question, we don’t get to see the training room. Now, after me.”

Peter, Ned and MJ moved up, so they were walking in line with Tyler. He tilted his head to look at them.

“No offence,” he whispered, “but your class is gross.”

“Don’t I know it.”

“God, high school was the worst. Thank God it’s over.”

They laughed. “Not for us it isn’t.”

“Well, I have a whole lot more respect for you lot.”

Peter grinned. “These are some of the better ones. You should see the actual school.”

 

Tyler looked horrified. “I’m scared now. So- Hold on. Is that Hawkeye?”

Even though Tyler ran tours pretty often, he didn’t see the Avengers too often. He normally got to meet them through Peter, who was now hiding behind him.

“Don’t let him see me.” He hissed. But it was too late. True to his name, Clint had latched onto Peter’s eyes like a hawk. He seemed to be making a million calculations in his head, then appeared to have come to a decision. He waved to the group, then launched himself into the air, opened a vent passage, and climbed through, probably to tell the rest of the Avengers.

The rest of the decathlon team started chattering excitedly, but Peter just let his head collapse on Ned’s shoulder.

“I’m doomed! I’m going to die.”

“Ninety-nine. One more.”

Peter glared at them half-heartedly. “I hate you.”

 

 

 

 

Peter spent the entire walk to the cafeteria seating area, which he did not know was in the building, looking over his shoulder for the Avengers, waiting for them to jump out at him. But they were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they weren’t going to embarrass him. Doubtful, but it was a ray of hope for Peter to clutch onto. A ray of hope that promptly shrivelled up and died when he checked his bag for lunch. He’d left it on the bench. _Oh no._ Peter should get a button with that on it. It would accurately sum up his entire life.

 

“FRIDAY?” His voice was low enough that only Ned and MJ, who were sitting on either side of him, could hear. FRIDAY would be able to pick up on it too, she was an AI after all. An AI made by Tony Stark for that matter. “Can you check if I left my lunch upstairs? If I have, um… make the bin in the corner flash green.”

Ned and MJ looked at him with twin expressions of, ‘ _really? That’s the best you could think of?’._

Flash was illuminated with a green spotlight. Flash, as in the person, not the bin like he’d asked. MJ laughed silently, harder than she seemed to have ever laughed before. Tears were streaming down her face.

 

“Peter,” she whispered, “Peter, she made Flash green. Get it? Make the bin in the corner, Flash, green. Oh my God, Peter!”

 

Peter flushed red. “FRIDAY! Turn off the light.” Flash went back to normal, merely looking confused. “You knew exactly what I meant FRIDAY!” Peter hissed. He was sure if she could, FRIDAY would be laughing. He sighed, MJ was still sobbing silently, and Ned looked like he was about to burst.

“Oh my God.” MJ kept on repeating.

“FRIDAY, can you please ask someone to drop my lunch down? Quietly. Pepper maybe. Please? If you are going to, please make the _actual_ trash can, _not_ the person green. The _bin_ FRI. Do not make Flash green.”

The bin in the corner lit up for a moment, then the light flickered off.

“Thanks FRI.”

 

MJ wiped her eyes. “Thanks for that Peter. You’ve made my week. Even FRIDAY thinks Flash is a piece of trash.”

Peter rolled his eyes, keeping watch on the door. He wasn’t sure exactly how he was going to manage to sneak his food in, but it was Pepper, she would know how to do it.

 

 

The doors burst open, and in strolled Bucky, a pleased look on his face. And in his hand, was Peter’s lunchbox.

“FRIDAY!” he hissed.

The room burst into noise.

“It’s the Winter Solider!”

“He’s Captain America’s friend, right?”

“What’s he holding?”

Bucky looked round the room. He found Peter cowering behind Ned.

“Peter!” He made his way through the crowd of students that had formed around him. Flash took a step back, practically fuming. Peter could almost see the smoke coming out of his ears.

Bucky sat down across from him. “Hey Pete! How is your day going? I brought some more cookies, the ones you love.”

Peter waited for the floor to swallow him.

“Bucky, what are you doing here?”

Bucky grinned wickedly. “I could ask the same thing of you. I’m hurt. Why didn’t you tell us that you were having a field trip? We had to find out through Clint. And FRIDAY for that matter.”

Peter glared at the ceiling. “Traitor.”

“When she told us you’d left your lunch, we had to come.”

Peter gulped. “They all know?”

“Every single one of them.”

“Even Mr. Stark.”

“You’d better watch out. We are going to make sure that the tour is as exciting as possible. Anyway, I’d better go. We need to finish off the final plan.” He got to his feet.

“Bucky, no!”

“Can’t hear you Peter!”

“Bucky!”

“Did you say something? I didn’t hear anything.”

“Hey! Bucky, don’t do this to me!”

He started whistling and left the room.

 

 

“FRIDAY, tell the rest of the Avengers, because I’m they’re listening, that I hate them.”

“Of course, Peter.”

There was a beat of dead silence.

 

“They say that they appreciate the sentiment.”

MJ snorted next to him, jolting Peter out of the sort of daze he’d fallen into. He blinked a few times and scanned the room. There was a crash as the plate Flash had managed to find and was holding fell to the floor and shattered.

 

“Shit.” Peter muttered.

“Language!”

Mr. Stark had recorded Cap saying it once, then programmed FRIDAY to shout it out every time someone swore. Which had admittedly been funny at the time. Now, not so much.

“I’m going to quietly die now.”

Ned patted Peter on the back gently.

 

“One-hundred Pete.” He handed MJ a five dollar note like the true friend he was.

There was a roar of noise, as a wall of students swarmed him.

“Peter, you know the Avengers?”

“Can you get them to sign this for me?”

“Can I meet them?”  
“What are they like?”

“Do they wear their uniforms around?”

“Have you met Captain America?”

Peter blocked his ears. It was way too loud. Ned shot a panicked look towards Tyler.

“Hey! Calm down.”

They didn’t listen.

“What shampoo does the Winter Solider use?”

“Do the Avengers eat? Or do they have some sort of super serum?”

“Are the Avengers nice?”

“Are they as hot up close?”

 

Tyler’s voice was drowned out. Everything started swimming in Peter’s vision and his breath stuttered. Everything was too loud, and he felt himself drowning. _Not now. Please not now._

 

He reached out blindly and gripped onto Ned’s arm. At least he thought it was Ned’s arm. He hoped so. He started drawing a pattern, a code they’d come up with, years and years ago, when they were ten-year-old kids who thought they were so clever.

_Make it stop._

He was shaking. Everything was too loud, and he couldn’t make it stop.

There was a sharp whistle, cutting through all the noise. Everyone else fell silent. Peter took deep gulping breaths. Ned was rubbing his arm slowly.

_I’m here. I’m here. I’m here._

His vison began to clear. The rest of the team looked impatient, they seemed to be more annoyed about the fact that Peter wasn’t answering their questions than the whole, _Peter was on the edge of a panic attack._ Because of course they were.

Tyler met his eyes.

 _Are you going to be okay?_ He mouthed.

Peter nodded.

 

MJ was standing on the table, her fingers held near her mouth, ready to whistle again if need be.

“Are you good for questions?” she murmured.

Peter nodded again.

 

“Okay then. Peter is going to answer some questions. _One at a time!_ ”

Everyone rushed forward again, bombarding him.

MJ whistled, another short burst that silenced everyone.

“What part of one at a time do you not understand?”

Peter stood up. “I’m just going to explain. Like Tyler said earlier today, I’m Mr. Stark’s personal assistant, therefore I have met the Avengers before a few times. No, they don’t wear their uniforms constantly. They wear normal clothes. I have no clue what shampoo Bucky uses, and I have no desire to find out. Yes, they eat. They are normal people. Or at least act like them. They are really nice people, and I wouldn’t say they are hot, as they are _adults_ who are all far older than me. That’s all I have to say for now.” He sat back down.

 

 MJ fixed them with a glare, the extra special one she saved for occasions such as staring down Presidents.

He was pretty sure she would be able to scare off anyone with that look. They all backed away and spent the rest of the break stealing not so secret glances towards Peter.

 

“Thanks guys.”

“No problem.”

“Hey, do you mind if I run off for a minute? I think I need to refresh myself in the bathroom.”

“Go ahead.”

Peter walked out, waving quickly at Tyler to show he was going. Tyler nodded at him and turned his attention back to his phone.

Out of the corner of his eye, Peter saw Flash get up from his seat and prayed to whoever was out there that he wouldn’t follow. But it seemed luck was not in his favour. Flash followed him out of the room and all the way over, so they were standing outside the toilets.

“What do you want?”

Flash sneered, like some villain from those cheap movies he and May used to rent and watch on Sunday’s, while stuffing their faces with pizza.

“I want you to tell me how you managed to bribe them all if you’re so poor.”

“Flash, I’ve told you a thousand times, I am not bribing them.”

“Yeah right Penis. You have to of. If they even hired high schoolers, which they don’t, why would they hire you? And for Tony Stark’s personal assistant? You have to have paid them. So how did you do it?”

“I didn’t pay anyone.”

“So, were you a whore for them then? Is that what the secret is? The Avengers pretend you are actually a part of the company, that you actually work here, and you get down on your knees? You’re their little boy toy? What about that Tyler guy? Did you offer your _services_ -” Flash spat the word out, “-to them?”

“Flash. Shut up.”

“Oh yeah? What, are you scared now I’ve found out the truth? Are you worried I’m gonna tell everyone? Cause I will. Everyone will know that you are the whore for the Avengers. Their slut? That’s all you are. You undress yourself, they do whatever they want with you, and you get to keep up your lies? Huh?”

There was no way that FRIDAY wasn’t seeing all of this. “Flash, please. Shut your mouth.”

“Oohh. Are you going to make me? Do you force them to shut their mouths? Do you do it with all of them? Do you do it with Black Widow and Tony Stark? What about Pepper Potts? Do you get your way with her?”

 

Peter’s vision was going red. He could deal with Flash insulting him, he hated very moment of it, but he could force his way through it. But Flash insulting his family? “Flash, I said, shut up.”

 

Flash rolled his eyes. “Please, I know for a fact that you like both girls _and_ boys. What’s to stop you from being a slut for both?”

“Slut is the term used for women generally Flash.” He gritted out.

“Well you are a girl anyway. You’re a pathetic girl.”

Peter felt his body shudder with contained anger. “Some of the most amazing and powerful people I know are women Flash.”

 

He scoffed. “Fine then. I’ll just call you a whore. A filthy little whore.”

Flash shoved him against the wall.

 

 

“Hello boys. I’m afraid it’s time to head back to the rest of your tour group. You have an exciting _updated_ schedule. Come along now.” Pepper was standing in the hallway, staring at them with a cold expression. Flash gulped, letting go of Peter, and running away. Peter staggered forwards slightly.

 

“Peter. How long has that been going on for?”

Peter looked up. “I… no time. No time at all. It only happened just then. Actually, that didn’t happen. It was just a joke you know?”

“Peter.” Pepper’s voice was deadly calm. “It’s too late. We all saw.”

He met her eyes and saw they were full of murderous rage. She was trembling slightly, her hands curled up into fists.

 

“Pepper, please don’t kill him. I don’t want you to have to explain a dead body.”  
“We all saw Peter. And May will too when she gets back. Like I said, it’s too late Peter. That boy, Eugene Thompson is going down.”

“Pepper! Come on. You are the only level headed one when it comes to not killing people. Please. You’re the only one who can control the rest of the Avengers.”

“Tough luck. That kid deserves everything coming to him. Now come on. You’ll be late for the next part of the tour.” She gave him a quick hug, then pulled him over to where everyone else was waiting.

 

“Oh, and by the way-” she whispered, “-by everyone, I mean everyone. Tyler here saw the footage as well.” Pepper patted him gently on the back. “Have fun sweetheart.” She turned and left him. Peter walked the final way to join the rest of the team. Tyler saw him coming and smiled that same murderous smile that Pepper had.

 

 

“We’re all here now. Good. So special circumstances, and the tour has been updated slightly. We now have a different few sessions. But luckily for you, you all now get to see the Avengers training area.”

There were a few cheers as they all followed after Tyler. Ned and MJ fell in line next to Peter.

“Are you feeling okay? You look like you’ve seen a murder.”

Peter turned his head towards them slightly. “The Avengers found out about Flash. All of it.”

They winced and turned to the person in question.

“If they found out, why is he still here? And alive for that matter.”

“They are planning something big.”

“Well I’d say it has been nice knowing Flash, but it really hasn’t. I’m not sure I feel like going to his funeral, if they ever end up finding his body.” MJ shrugged as Peter looked to her in horror.

“Come on. We are going to fall behind.”

Ned shrugged as well. “It doesn’t bother me too much. Your job is to beat up bad guys. What makes this any different?”

“Flash isn’t some bad guy Ned!”

“Why not? He’s hurting people, sometimes physically. What makes him any different from the baddies you go up against?”

“He’s just a kid!”

“So are you Peter. Why do you keep forgetting that you matter too?”

“Because I can deal with it!” Peter didn’t understand, did they not get it?

“But why should you?”

“Because I’m a superhero.” Peter hissed. “It’s literally my job.”

MJ stepped in. “No Peter. Your job is to beat up bad guys who hurt people. And that’s what the Avengers are going to do now. Don’t worry about it. Flash isn’t going to be hurting anyone anytime soon.”

 

 

 

They made their way to the training room, Tyler glaring daggers at a perplexed Flash the entire walk over. Peter could even feel the coldness from FRIDAY, literally, as she turned lowered the room temperature slightly. Peter was sure if Karen was there, she would have gone instant kill on him. They made their way inside the room, instead of in the glass waiting area which was mostly used for people watching. These rooms were off limits to the general public, until now.

 

 

 

 

There were four people inside the room. Natasha, Steve, Bucky and Thor.

Steve and Bucky were sparing in the centre, a fast and furious match, each moving with deadly precision and speed. Natasha was throwing knives, one after the other, hitting the target dead centre each time. All the while, objects were being thrown at her using a program Peter had come up with, together with Mr. Stark. Thor was using Miljnor, hitting rows of targets at once, then having her fly back to his outstretched hand and repeating. He had it _slip_ out of his hand, and go flying towards Flash’s head, missing him by inches, then rushing back.

“Oops.” Thor chuckled softly, his eyes filled with deadly intent. “Didn’t see you there.”

 

Flash’s eyes were as wide as saucers. He gulped in a deep breath of air. The others in the room stopped fighting and came over to speak to the group.

“Hello everyone. I’m Steve Rogers as I’m sure you know, and these people are Natasha Romanov,” she smirked, sharpening her blades, “Bucky Barnes,” he nodded, fiddling with his gun he’d picked up from the floor, “and Thor Odinson.” Thor threw Miljnor again and caught her neatly in his palm.

“Do you have any questions you want to ask us?”

 

Everyone nodded carefully, they all seemed faintly terrified.

Cindy put up her hand slowly.

Steve nodded to her.

“Um… do you-”

Flash interrupted. “Do you know Peter Parker? Captain?”

Steve’s eyes narrowed and Natasha frowned at Flash. Peter gulped.

“I do. In fact, he is one of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Now, how about we let your classmate over here finish her question?”

 

There were a few more questions, but most everyone was too nervous to talk. Any remnant of the happy, careless avengers was gone, replaced by a cold exterior, the one that was usually saved for the biggest villains they faced.

Suddenly, Bucky seemed to have an idea.

 

“How would you guys like to have a demonstration of the sort of things we do in to train? In fact, would you like us to demonstrate with some of you?”

There were a few cheers.

“Who wants to be the first person to come up? Come on, step right up.”

Sally took a step forwards but was promptly shoved to the side by Flash. He seemed to be acting like more of an idiot than usual, which was just great, because it wasn’t like the team didn’t already hate his guts.

“I’m going first!”

Natasha stepped forwards. “Of course. Come here.”

Flash made a face. “I thought I was going against one of the guys. You know I did martial arts for two years? I want to go against someone good!”

 

The entire room went dead silent. Mr. Harrington looked near tears. MJ and Ned looked at Peter with twin looks of horror.

“Oh my God.” Peter whispered.

Natasha tilted her head and smiled softly. “I’m sure I will be good enough for now.”

Flash snorted. “I’ll go easy then.”

Peter’s head hit Ned’s shoulder.

 

 

Natasha and Flash stood in the centre of the room, where Steve and Bucky had been sparring earlier. Ms Romanov took an offensive position and Flash made some sort of squat. He put his hand out and beckoned her towards him.

In the blink of an eye, he was pinned to the ground, Nat had his hands twisted above his head, her knee against his throat and her second leg on his chest.

“Was that good enough for you?” she murmured. Flash made some embarrassing squeaking noise as she released him, then sprinted back to join the group.

“Anyone else want a go?”

Peter was pretty sure he could hear some crickets in the background.

She got to her feet.

“Peter! You’ve trained with me before, how about you help show them how it’s done?”

Peter shook his head rapidly, but she merely nodded. MJ shoved him forwards gently. _What good friends I have._ He glared at her, making his way towards where Nat was waiting. Thor ruffled his hair as he went past.

 

They took up fighting stances, Natasha in offensive, Peter in defensive. She ran forwards, and at the last moment, flipped her body up, so she was soaring through the air.

Peter couldn’t help it, he moved. It was incredibly hard to stand still when a trained spy was aiming a heavy kick straight for your forehead.

They quickly fell into a sort of dance, moving around each other like they’d been fighting together for years, not months. Peter let everything else around him fade away, concentrating entirely on dodging Nat, and trying to get some hits in himself.

 

After a good ten minutes or so, Peter managed to grab onto Natasha’s arm, and pin her to the ground. There was a moment of stunned silence, then Nat laughed, and the entire room burst into incredulous shouts. _Oh God._ Peter had forgotten that the rest of the team was there. He really had to stop doing that. He listened to them for a second, and instantly regretted his decision. He was pretty sure he had heard someone say that they would totally let Peter pin them down. Why the hell were his classmates so horny?

 

 

Ned and MJ gave him enthusiastic thumbs up, Tyler grinned and the rest of the Avengers in the room gave Peter some sort of congratulations. Peter dared to glance in Flash’s direction, he looked near tears. Peter winced.

“Alright then!” Steve broke through the deafening chatter that had spread across the room. “I believe it’s time for you guys to continue on to the next part of your tour?” Tyler nodded and signalled for them all to follow him. As they were leaving, Thor reached out and grabbed onto Peter’s arm.

“Tonyson.” Peter rolled his eyes. No matter how many times he was told otherwise, Thor seemed to be insistent on the fact that Mr, Stark was Peter’s dad. “If I ever see or hear that boy insult your honour again, he will be murdered. Miljnor is not just an accessory. Do you understand my meaning?”

Peter nodded carefully.

 

“Good. Now your father is about to put him in his place. Go to your friends.”

_Oh no. Mr. Stark’s going to murder him._

“Thanks Thor.” He hissed, then turned and sprinted after the group.  There was no way that Flash was going to survive facing an angry Mr. Stark, especially if he acted like he had with Nat. What the hell had Flash been thinking? No one ever insulted the Black Widow and got out of it alive. If the Avengers didn’t already hate Flash’s guts, they definitely would now.

 

 

 

 

Tyler lead them all over to one of the conference rooms that were used whenever the government or some other important organisation needed to talk to the Avengers. Which meant Mr. Stark had designed it, so the Avengers when sitting in the room were in a position of power. How he had managed to make someone powerful by sitting down in a seat Peter honestly didn’t know. He had done it though.

 

 

 

There were a few gasps as everyone walked into the room. Sitting in the seats of power were the entire Avengers, including the ones that had been in the training room a few minutes ago.

_How had they gotten there so fast?_

Pepper was even sitting down to the side, while Happy was glowering at them all from his position in the doorway.

Nat sat in the Mama Bear Chair and Mr. Stark was next to her in the Papa Bear Chair. The Baby Bear Chair was empty.

Peter silently prayed that they weren’t going to ask him to sit in it. Mr. Stark had made the decision of letting Wanda and Peter name the three main chairs of power.

They were yet to find it, but the two of them were certain that the chairs had a button on it that would destroy the world.

 

Mr. Stark’s face was deadly calm, one that Peter had seen whenever he was ready to attack. He dared a look towards Flash. Nothing. There was silence. Then Mr. Stark had to break it.

“Welcome Midtown Tech. I assume that you’ve been told about how your tour has been altered today, and that is for two reasons. One of them is that your classmate, Peter Parker is my personal assistant and we wanted to make sure that his _friends_ -” Peter coughed quietly, “-get the best possible experience. The other,” Mr. Stark glared at Flash, “we will get to at a later point in time. But while we are at it, how about Peter comes up to the front, and we will all answer some of your questions?” This time it was Tyler who shoved Peter forwards. Muttering under his breath about how much he hated him, and his life, Peter made his way over to the rest of the team and sat down in the Baby Bear Chair.

 

 

 

There was yet another awkward silence. Peter considered jumping out of the window to avoid this Q&A, but he knew one of the Avengers would jump out after him or catch him in some way.

“So, as you all know, we are the Avengers. Does anyone want to ask us something?” Bucky leant back in his chair.

Abe put up his hand. “Um… How exactly do you all know Peter?”

“We-”

“Good question. I’ll answer it.” Mr. Stark interrupted. “A couple of years ago, I found Peter making new Stark phones out of the old ones that had been chucked away. Pretty soon, people started buying them straight off him and I figured I had to find out who this guy was, who could apparently _make Stark phones, but better._ ”

 

That was a true story in a way. Peter had been making new phones and selling them off, but it wasn’t until well after the Spider-Man incident that Mr. Stark had figured out that it was Peter making them.

 

“After I found Peter, I hired him instantly as an intern, then later, once he had proved he was ready for more, I promoted him to my personal intern and assistant.” Another half-truth. “That’s when the rest of the team-” Mr. Stark gestured to everyone sitting around him, “-got to meet the kid. And not too soon after that, they were squabbling over who got to hang out with him, and who was the best uncle or aunt.”

 

Peter looked over to Ned, who was mouthing _so cool,_ even though Peter had told him all this before.

 

 

Sally put her hand up next. “How come Peter is trained?”

“How so?”

“In like combat and stuff.”

“Right. Nat, you want to take this one?”

 

The spy nodded. “Since Peter knows all of the Avengers and is Tony Stark’s personal intern, he is going to make enemies. We already have him under a whole load of protection, but we can’t always be sure. Especially after… Anyway, we thought it best to make sure that Peter was fully trained in both self-defence, and some offensive skills, so that if he finds himself in trouble and we’re not there or unable to help him for some reason, he can hold his own till we can step in.”

 

“What was the incident thingy? Is that why Peter was away for a bit?”

The team looked to Peter. _This okay?_ He nodded back.

“Yeah, it was.” He took a deep breath to calm his nerves. “A few months ago, I was kidnapped by some… people.”

“They don’t count as people.” Peter heard Sam hiss.

 

“They wanted to hurt me because I was close to the Avengers and Mr. Stark. Obviously, the team found me. But yeah, after that they thought it would be best if I could look after myself as well.”

 

 

The Decathlon team were dead silent, even Mr. Harrington looked horrified. Peter supposed hearing that your classmate and student was kidnapped because he was close to a team of superheroes.

So many people forgot that there were downsides to being a hero. Most people saw them save the day, go home and relax in their luxury home and thought, _how cool would that be?_ But you also had to deal with the bad parts. The people who wanted to hurt you. The ones you couldn’t save. Thanks to Wanda, Peter had found out that the entire team suffered from nightmares of sorts.

 

 

Then of course, Flash had to ruin everything.

“No offence-”

 _When had that ever been followed by something that wasn’t offensive?_ Aunt May had once told him that whenever someone said that, it meant, _“They’ve obviously thought about what they were going to say, realised that it was offensive, but they are going to say it anyway.”_

“-but like, why was he kidnapped? Like I get that they thought that he was important or something, but why wouldn’t they try to kidnap someone actually significant, like, I dunno, Iron Man? Why would they kidnap puny Penis Parker? He’s worthless. He doesn’t even have parents, it’s not like there is anyone cares about what happens to him.”

 

Well, Flash had just signed his own death warrant. Congratulations _._

 _I tried my best to warn you, but you were too much of a dick, so in the end you deserved it._ Actually, that would look great on his tombstone.

 

Mr. Harrington had gone deathly pale and looked like he was considering the same thing as Peter had earlier and take the easy way out through the window.

Ned looked horrified and Peter remembered asking him one night what he could remembered about the time after Peter had been taken. Ned had replied,

 

_“I remember getting a call from Mr. Stark, telling me that you were missing. I remember calling MJ and I remember spending the entire time you were away either sitting in my room, panicking, or at the Compound, doing whatever we could to find you._

_I remember being there when they found out where you were being kept, and they forced us to stay behind with Pepper and I remember seeing a glimpse of your face when Bucky carried you back inside._

_You were so pale, and you had these… disgusting gashes all over you. Mr. Stark was yelling for someone to get the Med Bay set up, to find a doctor, to get help. I was crying and Pepper and Sam had to hold us back from running over to you._

_I remember sitting by your bed with MJ, and then she had to go home, so I sat there all alone with you because I couldn’t leave you. I had left you alone to go home once before, then this had happened, and I was never leaving you alone again._

_I remember Mr. Stark spending almost the entire time pacing outside, constantly checking in to see if you were recovering properly._

_I remember staring at all those marks he had made and wanting to kill whoever had hurt you._

_In the end Sam had to force me to leave, he said it wasn’t healthy and I needed sleep._

_I remember every time you went home from school after that, I would make sure I could see Happy, or else I’d text him to make sure._

_Every single time you hopped into his car, I would have to remind myself that it was really him, that nothing bad was going to happen, that you were going to be okay._

_I remember promising myself that I would never let something like that happen to you ever, ever again.”_ Ned’s face looked like he was remembering it all again, and MJ seemed to be the same way.

 

Happy had taken a step from the doorway, before seeming to realise that murdering a minor would not be a good idea. Wanda had raised her hands, eyes flashing violently.

Vision looked torn between trying to stop her and helping out. Bucky had tried to get up from his seat, but was being restrained by both Sam and Steve, who had murderous expressions, but seemed to consider the consequences of Bucky killing a kid.

Pepper and Rhodey were doing the same to Mr. Stark, who looked as if he was about to rip Flash’s head off. Bruce had gone vaguely green and Clint and Nat were reaching for their weapons.

Thor had Miljnor in hand and was on his feet, looking ready to smite someone. _Probably Flash._ Peter silently thanked every sort of cosmic entity out there that May wasn’t here.

 

 

There was a moment of silence where all that could be heard was Flash’s whimper as he backed up, his back hitting the wall.

Peter mentally argued with himself, should he let Flash get straight up murdered by the Avengers, or should he step in? Pepper’s grip began to falter on Mr. Stark’s arm and Peter heard the distant sound of the Iron Man armour warming up. _Dammit._ He was Spider-Man, and Spider-Man didn’t let people get hurt. _God damn hero complex. Why can’t I step back for once?_

 

“Hey, hey, hey!” _What am I doing?_ He thought, running directly in between them.

“Kid, stand down.” Mr. Stark’s voice was dangerously low.

“No. I’m not going to let you hurt him. Look, Flash is an idiot-”

Said boy made an indignant noise and Peter shot him a look. _I’m trying to help you out._

“-but he doesn’t deserve for you guys to murder him. Please.”

 

They looked conflicted, but Wanda was the first to stand down.

“Very well. But understand-” She turned to glare at Flash. “If anything like this happens again, if you even come into my sight once more, you would not like to see what I will do to you.” She gave Peter one last look and mouthed, _I’m talking to you later,_ before walking out of the room, followed by Vision who gave Flash a frown and gestured to the mind stone in his head.

 

Clint got to his feet, swinging his bow over his shoulder. “I’d say it has been nice meeting you kids, but it really hasn’t. And just so you know, I never miss a shot.” He flipped himself into the vent system and Peter tried not to groan. He always had to be extra.

 

Bruce was next, “Look, the Hulk already has enough bad press, so I’m not going to make the situation worse. But understand me, I don’t have 7 PHD’s for nothing. If you hurt Peter again, you won’t live long enough to regret it.”

 

Thor followed after him. “Small boy, you have insulted the honour of a great man. I shall not forget this. Although I allow you to live, only for the sake of Peter, I will not hesitate to smite you.”

 

Steve let go of Bucky’s arm experimentally, then got to his feet. “Son, I have spent half of my life fighting Nazis, I do not want to end my life fighting fools like you. Peter is a great kid, and one day, he’ll be a great man. He is, and will be, a thousand times better than you. So do not attempt to insult him again, it does you no favours.” He reached out, and swung his shield onto his arm, then left the room.

 

Seeing it was okay to let go of Bucky, Sam got up too. “I hope you’re happy kid. I hope it makes you feel good to insult and hurt and put down others. And I hope that I never see your face again, or I might have to smash it in.”

 

Rhodey stood, leaving Pepper to hold onto Mr. Stark’s arm. “Peter is one of the most intelligent and kind people I know in my life, and I know a lot of people. He deserves a whole lot better than people like you in his life. I want you to know that if you touch him again, your future is not going to be bright.”

 

Bucky reached out for his gun and glared at Flash. “The only reason you are still alive right now is that Peter is too compassionate for his own good. If it were up to me, you would be gone by now.” He took a careful breath. “But that said, if you so much as look at Peter wrong, I will kill you, and I will ensure that it is painful.”

Flash whimpered again. Peter supposed having multiple Avengers say they wanted to kill you, wasn’t exactly comforting.

 

Pepper gave Mr. Stark’s arm one last squeeze, then carefully got up. “Kid, I do not care who you are, I don’t care who your parents are. I don’t care who you know, if I ever see or hear about you hurting Peter, then I will ruin you. And I’ll have help.” She nodded towards Happy who growled.

 

Nat and Mr. Stark were the only two left in the room. Natasha gracefully got to her feet. “I am a trained assassin. I have killed before and if you are not careful, I will kill you again.” She turned to face Peter. “Бэби паук. Если он снова причинит тебе боль, я узнаю и убью его. Мы поговорим об этом позже. Вы должны были сказать мне. Теперь пусть ваш отец выговор ему.” Peter swallowed. He was not looking forward to that.

 

Finally, Mr. Stark was the only one left in the room, besides the terrified students and teacher. Slowly, he got up, brushing off his jacket.

 

“You know who I am. I may not be the CEO of Stark Industries anymore, but I have a lot of power. And I have the ability to ruin your life completely in seconds. I can stop you from ever being accepted into college, I can prevent you from ever getting a job and I can make every single day of the rest of your life miserable.” He cracked his knuckles. “The only reason that I haven’t ended you already is that _my kid-_ ” Peter froze. My kid? _My kid?_ Holy crap.  _Did Mr. Stark just call me his kid?_ “-seems to have taken pity on you.”

 

Peter had a moment of silently dying. _Oh my God. He just called me his kid._

“Now-” Mr. Stark smiled coldly. “-I believe it’s time for you to go. Peter, you can stay here. There’s no point in you heading back to school only to return back here. Ned and Michelle, you are welcome to stay too, but we will be needing to have a talk with Peter about _sharing._ And remember those NDA’s you all signed. If any of today is heard outside of here, our legal team is better and stronger than yours has any hope to be. Now get out of my sight. Teacher, take your class out.”

 

Mr. Harrington made a squeaking noise and rushed out of the room, followed instantly by Flash and the rest of the Decathlon Team. MJ and Ned followed after, pausing at the door.

 

“Thank you for that Stark. Tell Peter that we tried to get him to tell you earlier and look where that got him.” MJ gave a small smile to Peter.

 

Ned rushed over and gave him a final hug. “I gotta go man, I have to go back for dinner, or my parents are going to kill me. I’ll text you later, yeah?”

“Yeah. Text you later.”

Ned grinned, before rushing after the rest of the class.

 

 

Mr. Stark gave Peter a long look, before wrapping him in a hug. “I’m sorry I didn’t know kid. Now let’s talk with the rest of the team about your _explaining_ skills.”

Peter choked out a laugh as Mr. Stark continued, “I love you kiddo. You know that right? No matter what happens, no matter what happens to you, or to me, I will always love you. I can’t imagine a world out there where I would ever not care about you. And I-” he shook his head. “-I... Oh god, this is hard. I know there’s a chance that I won’t make it in the end. Or that you won’t make it. And I hate that. I hate that there is a chance that we won’t be together. I hate that there is a chance that I’ll leave you alone. But kid, if I’m… not around, I’ll always be there for you. And I’m so proud of everything you are. And I’ll be proud of everything you become.”

 

Peter crashed back into him, hugging him tightly. “Mr. Stark… I love you too. You are kind of-” he blinked back tears. “-You are kind of like a dad to me.” Mr. Stark’s body stiffened, and Peter pulled away instantly.

“Oh. I’m sorry. Was I not supposed to say that? I can take it back if you want. I… I’m sorry.”

 

Mr. Stark just looked at him in shock. “You think I’m your… _dad figure_? But I’m a terrible role model! I’ve made so many mistakes. I never want you to end up like me kid.”

Peter frowned. _Why wouldn’t he want me to be like him? He’s incredible._ “Mr. Stark, we all make mistakes. I’ve made mistakes, does that make me any less of a person?”

“Of course, it doesn’t!”

“Then why are you any different?” Mr. Stark sagged forwards, back into Peter’s arms, where he was happy to hold him.

“You’re too good at this kiddo.”

“I love you… Dad.”

 

Peter heard Mr. Stark sob a bit. “I love you too Peter.” He pulled away slightly again. “But don’t think this doesn’t mean you aren’t in trouble for not telling us about this. Now come on, let’s go talk to your crazy super-family.”

Peter grinned. _Crazy family._ He liked that. They turned back towards the elevator and headed towards the common room, Mr. Stark- _his dad’s_ arms still around him. For the first time in a while, Peter felt completely at ease. Everything was going well, and he had his crazy super-family to look out for him. He cuddled a little more into Mr. Stark’s side and beamed. Everything was going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe it. I actually managed to finish it! It's an honest miracle. You have no idea how amazing this is to me, this is the first multi-chapter fanfic I have ever finished and the first fic I've done for this fandom. Thank you so much to everyone who has been following this, and if you are new to it (oh god this is going to get old. That's a weird thought) welcome! I hopefully still exist in the future, so I will probably always be open to new requests and I would love you to point out any mistakes I have made. But please nice, I'm sensitive okay?  
> I used Google-translate for the Russian section, so if it’s wrong please tell me. The translation is: Baby spider If he hurts you again, I will find out and kill him. We will talk about it later. You should have told me. Now let your father reprimand him. The reason I used reprimand was that tell him off kept on changing to that so I just went with it. Also don't ask me how Peter knows Russian. He just does okay?  
> BTW the part about the security clearance was based off a Tumblr post I saw, but I forgot to write down who posted it, so if anyone knows please tell me so I can credit them.  
> I had no access to Wi-Fi while writing most of this, so it is probably not accurate or cannon in terms of how the industry is set up as well as the compound. Also, I was sick for half of the chapter, so I spent a good few hours glaring at the document and another couple of hours writing out a single paragraph then deleting it later. And when I got to the end, I wasn’t feeling that good emotionally, (damn you feelings, I’ve already tried to return you, why can’t I get a refund?) so the quality may not be the best. (And I had to add that scene in at the end because IronDad is life and you can't tell me any different.  
> These notes are going on for way to long, so I hope you enjoyed the fic! I can't believe it's over. If you have any suggestions or requests for another fic for me to write, please let me know! And again, if you want to scream about endgame, or just marvel in general come to me at my tumblr: oopstheregoesthatlifeofmine  
> Ok, shameless self advertising aside, I hope you enjoyed the fic. Bye!


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